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'     i/nJVERSITY   07   CALIFORNIA. 

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Creator  and  Creation; 


OR, 


THE    KNOWLEDGE    IN    THE    REASON 


OF  GOD  AND  HIS  WORK. 


BY 


LAURENS   P.  HICKOK,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


BOSTON: 

LEE    AND    SHEPARD,   PUBLISHERS. 

New  York : 

LEE,  SHEPARD  AND  DILLINGHAM. 
1872. 


Hs 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1872, 

By  LAURENS  P.  HICKOK, 

In  the  0£&ce  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


Stereotyped  at  the  Boston  Stereotype  Foundry, 
19  Spring  Lane. 


'UNIVEESITY^ 

PEEFACE. 


There  must  be  some  point  from  whence  the  Uni- 
verse may  be  observed,  and  the  self-consistent  whole 
be  fully  comprehenaedv  ^  To  a  spiritual  discernment 
from  that  point  the  Universe  will  be  known  as  a  Cos- 
mos of  order  and  beauty,  and  such  comprehensive 
knowing  will  be  true  wisdom.  Intelligences  from 
lower  positions  may  be  urging  their  way  upward  to^ 
wards  this  point  of  vision,  and  may  be  esteemed  wise 
proportioned  to  their  elevation  ;  but  the  impulse 
which,  from  any  stair,  urges  to  a  higher,  is,  at  least, 
a  love  of  toisdam  ;  and  so  the  spirit  of  true  philosophy 
may  be  taking  any  step  from  the  lowest  to  the  high- 
est. But  the  wisdom  here  loved  and  sought  must  be 
more  than  a  mere  apprehension  of  facts,  even  the 
comprehension  of  facts  in  their  essential  unity.  To 
merely  get  facts  as  they  appear,  and  carefully  classify 
them,  may  be  called  science  ;  but  except  as  it  shall  be 
sought  to  know  the  facts  in  their  necessary  connec- 

3 


4  PREFACE. 

tions  comprehensively,  the  so-called  science  will  have 
in  it  nothing  of  philosophy. 

It  will,  moreover,  be  a  delusive  assumption  to  hold 
that  Nature's  intrinsic  connections  can  be  gained  by 
experience,  or  by  any  logical  deductions  from  experi- 
ence. Appearances  will  be  found  in  uniform  colloca- 
tions and  invariable  successions ;  but  the  fact  of  uni- 
form appearances  together  in  place  will  not  warrant 
a  logical  conclusion  of  a  substance  in  which  they  in- 
here, nor  will  the  fact  of  appearances  in  an  invariable 
order  of  sequence  admit  of  the  logical  conclusion  that 
they  adhere  together  in  a  causal  efficiency.  Not  less 
illogical  must  it  be  to  rise  from  such  assumed  sub- 
stances and  causes  to  one  absolute  substance  or 
cause.  Philosophy  and  Theology  must  alike  be  im- 
possible for  any  sense-attainment,  or  an  understand- 
ing-judgment as  a  conclusion  from  sense.  If  we 
have  not  the  faculty  for  an  insight  into  experience 
which  finds  a  deeper  meaning  than  the  mere  appear- 
ance, then  must  we  be  incapable  either  to  be  wise  or 
to  love  wisdom. 

And  so  also  with  Revelation  as  with  Nature.  An 
assumed  Revelation  may  be  studied,  and  its  facts 
arranged  with  much  learning ;  but  when  a  profound 
scepticism  meets  us,  and  drives  us  back  of  the  facts, 
and  asks  for  the  validity  of  prophecy,  and  miracles, 


PREFACE.  5 

and  inspiration,  and  even  for  the  being  of  a  God 
who  can  foreknow,  and  work  miracles,  and  inspire 
human  messengers,  we  are  thrown  directly  back 
upon  these  old  assumptions  of  Nature's  necessary 
connections.  No  sense-experience  puts  within  the 
consciousness  anything  by  which  logic  alone  can 
enable  us  to  know  that  which  beyond  Nature  sup- 
ports  and  connects  Nature  ;  and  thus  the  logical 
understanding  is  driven  helplessly  to  swing  on  the 
circle,  of  taking  the  Bible's  God  to  make  and  hold 
together  Nature,  and  then  to  take  Nature's  God  to 
make  and  reveal  the  facts  of  the  Bible.  The  student 
of  the  Bible  allows  himself  to  rest  his  faith,  ultimate- 
ly, on  nothing  which  has  not  first  appeared  in  sense- 
experience  ;  physical  science  is  pushing  eagerly  and 
earnestly  her  free  inquiries  ;  many  phenomena  are 
encountered  which  run  back  into  sceptical  difficul- 
ties ;  and  seriously  or  mischievously  these  stumbling- 
blocks  are  thrown  in  the  way  of  religious  faith ;  and 
then  no  theology,  without  a  higher  philosophy,  can 
either  pass  on  over  them,  or  push  them  out  of  the 
path. 

We  must  recognize  a  higher  spiritual  faculty  than 
sense-experience,  as  an  organ  for  a  spiritual  philoso- 
phy, which  shall  abundantly  comprehend  and  confirm 
our  theology ;  and  therein  may  all  scepticism  be  feirly 


6  PREFACE. 

met  and  answered.  The  phenomena  of  Nature  must 
be  seen  to  be  ordered  by  essential  forces  back  of  the 
appearances;  and  also  faith  in  Theism  must  rest  on 
truth  known  to  be  beyond  Nature,  and  determining 
the  order  of  Nature,  though  known  by  the  insight 
of  reason  in  Nature.  So,  seeing  in  experience  what 
is  conditional  for  it,  we  attain  a  comprehensive  knowl- 
edge of  Experience  itself.  And  here  only  is  the  open- 
ing to  a  spiritual  philosophy  which  may  be  competent 
to  silence  all  sceptical  cavilling  with  our  theology. 

As  far  as  is  necessary  or  desirable,  thfe  metaphysic 
for  such  a  philosophy  has,  some  years  since,  been 
given  in  the  Rational  Psychology.  The  physical  por- 
tion, necessary  in  the  completion  of  such  philosophy, 
has  never  yet  been  adequately  presented  even  in 
outline.  This  is  here  attempted :  and  after  a  critical 
examination  of  the  leading  theories  of  modern  philos- 
ophy, exposing  the  main  point  in  which  with  most 
there  is  an  utter,  and  in  the  best  a  partial,  deficiency, 
and  therein  opening  the  sure  process  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  an  Absolute  Creator,  the  Creation  is  itself 
speculatively  contemplated  in  its  essential  Forces, 
and  these  determined  in  their  necessary  connections. 
These  essential  Forces  have  their  determined  con- 
nections in  all  the  mechanism  of  Inorganic  nature  ; 
and  then  a  life-power  is  contemplated  as  superinduced 


PREFACE.  7 

by  the  Creator,  which  uses  these  essential  mechanical 
forces  in  spontaneously  upbuilding  about  itself,  and 
for  its  own  ends,  the  varied  organic  structures  of  the 
Vegetable  and  Animal  kingdoms  ;  when  a  contem- 
plated endowment  of  animal  sentient  life  with  reason 
introduces  man  in  the  image  of  the  Creator,  and 
crowns  the  creative  work  with  a  Spiritual  kingdom 
in  Humanity  which  has  dominion  over  all. 

The  validity  of  the  speculation,  and  the  stability 
of  its  connections,  must  be  determined  in  the  compre- 
hensive unity  and  consistency  with  which  it  shuts 
phenomenal  facts  together  in  a  universe,  and  the  cer- 
tainty with  which  it  puts  the  origin  and  consumma- 
tion of  the  universe  in  the  Absolute  Thought  and 
Will  of  a  Personal  Creator.  The  importance  to  the 
present  age,  so  unphilosophical  and  thus  so  sceptical, 
of  a  deeper  interest  in  Speculative  Philosophy  can 
hardly  be  over-estimated  ;  and  perhaps  by  what  is 
here  attempted,  such  interest  may  be  somewhat 
quickened  and  extended. 

Amherst,  1872. 


CONTENTS. 


PART    I. 

KNOWLEDGE   OF  A   CREATOR. 
CHAPTER  I. 

PA6B 

KNOWLEDGE     RESTRICTED   *T0    THAT    WHICH    IS 
GAINED   IN   EXPERIENCE 18 

1.  Pure  Empiricism  in  the  Positive  Philosophy 22 

2.  Empiricism  as  expounded  by  the  Laws  of  Association.  29 

3.  Empiricism  in  the  Philosophy  op  Common  Sense.     .    .  39 

4.  Experience  of  Force  given  in  Muscular  Pressure.    .  47 
6.  The  Critical  Philosophy 54 

i.   First  Stage,  Critic  of  Pure  Reason 56 

a.    Second  Stage,  Science  of  Knowledge 59 

iii.   Third  Stage,  Science  of  Logic 66 

CHAPTER  11. 

REASON    COMPETENT    TO    KNOW   AN    OUTER    CRE- 
ATION  81 

1.  The  Essential  Process  to  Thorough  and  Comprehen- 

sive Knowledge 82 

2.  Speculative  Absurdities  in   Sense  and  Logic  become 

Truth  in  the  Reason 91 

3.  Distinction  between  knowing  Thoughts  and  knowing 

Things 102 

9 


10  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   III. 

REASON  KNOWS   THE   CREATOR 106 

1.  A  Creator  must  be  Independent  op  ant  Imposed  Con- 

dition   107 

2.  The  Finite  Reason   can  prom   Itselp  know  the   Uni- 

versal   110 

3.  The  Universal  Reason  is  a  Person 113 

4.  The  Personality  op  Reason  is  also  Absolute 115 

i.   His  Being  is  Absolute 116 

a.   His  Sovereignty  is  Absolute 117 

in.   His  Agency  is  Absolute 119 

iv.   His  Blessedness  is  Absolute 119 

5.  The  Absolute   Creator  is  Triune 121 

6.  Theism  distinct  prom  all  Forms  op  Pantheism.     .   .    .  125 


PART    II. 

KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 
Design  and  Method. 131 

CHAPTER  I. 
SPACE   AND   TIME 133 

1.  There  are  many  dipperent  Kinds  op  Space 133 

2.  There  are  different  Kinds  op  Time 135 

3.  The  Constructions  op  Sense  give  Extension  and  Suc- 

cession only 136 

4.  The  Logical  Judgment  gives  Place  and  Period  only.    137 

5.  The  Reason  only  can  know  Space  and  Time 139 


CONTENTS.  11 

6.  Sameness  of  Space  and  Time  can  be  known  only  in  tub 

Continuity  of  the  Extension  and  Succession.  .   .    .   141 

7.  This  Continuity  of  Extension  and  Succession  can  only 

be  known  through  some  Permanent  in  Nature.  .   .    142 

8.  This  Permanent  may  still  admit  of  great  Modifica- 

tions OF  the  one  Space  and  the  one  Time 144 

9.  The    Extension    and    Succession    in   the    Substantial 

itself  give,  in  the  Reason,  Absolutely  one  Space 
AND  ONE  Time 145 

CHAPTER  II. 
FORCE 147 

1.  Force  determines  Phenomena 147 

2.  The  Elements  op  Force « 151 

FIRST    DIVISION. 
ANTAGONIST  FORCE. 

1.  Creation  of  Force 156 

2.  It    is    competent    for    Force    to    affect    any    Sense- 

organ 161 

3.  Force  determines  Motion 164 

'             i.  Motion  from  simple  excess  of  energy  must  be  inces- 
sant, uniform,  and  rectilineal 167 

ii.    That  motion  which  any  superinduced  force  would 
give  must  be  compounded  with  the  motion  which 

the  original  force  already  has 168 

Hi.  The- rate  of  motion  must  be  directly  as  the  dynamic 
force  moving,  and  inversely  as  the  static  force 
moved 174 

4.  The  Atom  is  constituted  from  the  created  Forces.  .   176 

5.  Such  constituted  Atom  has  its  own  Nature 179 

6.  The  Forces  constituting  the  Atom  determine  what  is 

its  Inertia 181 

7.  The  Atom  determines  Gravity 184 

8.  The  Atom  from  its  Constitution  is  a  Magnet.  ....   190 


12  ,  CONTENTS. 

SECOND    DIVISION. 
DIREMPTIVE  FORCE. 

1.  The  Constitution  of  the  Diremptive  Atom 195 

2.  Ethereal  Atoms  occasion  Heat  and  Light 198 

3.  Ethereal  Atojis  are  the  Media  of  Cohesion 202 

4.  Molecules,   reciprocally  neutralizing   their   Forces 

IN  Cohesion,  determine  Chemical  Combinations.  .    .  201 

6.    Thermal  Vibrations  determine  Solidity  or  Fluidity.  208 

6.  Heat  and  Peculiar  Polarity  determine  Crystallogeny.  211 

7.  Heat-vibration  determines  Vaporization 216 

8.  Heat  vibration  determines  Combustion 219 

9.  Superficial  Magnetism,  made  free,  determines   Elec- 

tricity   222 

i.    Electricity  as  excited  by  Friction 225 

a.    Thermal  Electricity 231 

Hi.   Electricity  chemically  excited 232 

THIRD    DIVISION. 
REVOLVING  FORCE. 

1.  A  Revolving  Force  determines  the  Universe  and  its 

Absolute  Space  and  Time 237 

2.  The  Revolving  Force  determines  the  Separ\tion  and 

Distribution  of  the  Universal  Matter 246 

3.  Single  and  Compound  Worlds 248 

4.  Systems  op  Worlds 251 

5.  The  Revolving  Force  has   determined   several  Phe- 

nomena otherwise  inexplicable 255 

i.    Gradation  in  planetary  density 255 

a.    Gradation  of  interplanetary  spaces 256 

Hi,   Inclination  of  planetary  orbits 256 

iv.   Periodic  times  and  heliocentric  movement 256 

V.   The  orbits  of  the  satellites  should  present  greater 

irregularities  than  those  of  the  planets 257 


CONTENTS.  13 

vi.   Planetoids  and  Saturnian  ring 260 

vii.    The  same  matter  is  co-extensive  with  the  universe.  264 

6.  Comets  come  into  the  System  from  without 265 

7.  Geological  Formations 270 

8.  From  Facts  found  in  the  Universal   Stellar  Distri- 

bution,  WE   determine    our   Terrestrial   Relative 
Position 274 

CHAPTER  III. 

LIFE 284 

1.  Life  distinguished   from  Force,    in    that    it    deter- 

mines higher  Unities 284 

2.  The  Contemplation  of  an  Agency  competent  to  work 

Individualities 290 

3.  The  Life-power  is  an  Assimilative  Agent 293 

4.  The    Assimilative    Agency    must   be   elevated   to   an 

Organizing  Agency 300 

5.  A  higher  Organizing  Instinct  works  Sex-distinctions.   304 

6.  Sexual  Propagation  carries  in  it  the  Unity  of  Spe- 

cies   ^  ^    .   .    .   .  309 

7.  Not  Sex-Instinct,  but  the  Absolute  Ideal,  determines 

THE  higher  Unity  of  all  Species 316 

8.  Organic  Life  terminates  in  Death 320 

THE  REIGN  OF  LIFE  IN  THE  VEGETABLE  KINGDOM. 

Vegetable  life  purely  instinctive,  organizing  direct  from  the 
mineral  kingdom,  in  unconscious  subserviency  to  the  end 
of  a  superior  Realm 325 

THE  REIGN  OF  SENSE  IN  THE  ANIMAL  IQNGDOM. 

The  life-power  from  already  prepared  cellulose  products  in- 
stinctively builds  up  a  nervous  organism  with  ganglionic 
centres,  thus  giving  occasion  for  conscious  sentiency,  em- 
pirical judgment,  and  brute-will 331 


14  CONTENTS. 


THE   EEIGN   OF  REASON   IN   HUMANITY. 

Reason,  superinduced  on  sense,  has  dominion  in  its  own  right, 
secures  a  combined  psychical  and  spiritual  body,  and  in  this 
determines  Individuality,  Identity,  and  Immortality,  with 
prerogative  of  free  personality  in  Art,  Philosophy,  Moral- 
ity, and  Theology;  and  thereby  Humanity  becomes  the 
crown  and  consummation  of  the  Creator's  work 339 


\v^       or  TBE  ^ 

'UNIVERSITT 
CREATOR  AI^D  CREATIOK 


GENERAL  METHOD. 

The  Creator  determines  the  creation.  In  the  order 
of  thought  and  being  the  Creator,  but  in  the  order  of 
our  knowledge  the  creation,  is  prior.  Knowledge  be- 
gins in  experience,  but  as  the  Creator  never  himself 
appears  in  human  experience,  if  our  knowledge  must 
be  restricted  within  experience,  we  of  course  can 
never  know  the  Creator.  At  the  outset  we  are  thus 
thrown  upon  the  necessity  of  finding  and  using  an 
organ  of  knowledge  which  may  carry  us  beyond  all 
that  is  given  in  experience,  or  our  very  undertaking 
to  recognize  a  Creator,  and  speculatively  contemplate 
the  originating  of  his  work,  must  be  an  absurdity. 
But  in  the  use  of  Reason  as  a  distinct  organ  of  tran- 
scendental knowledge,  we  may  consis-tently  attempt 
to  attain  a  knowledge  of  the  Creator ;  following  which, 
we  may  also  consistently  seek  to  know  the  work  of 
creation  in  its  incipiency,  progress,  and  consunmaa- 
tion. 

15 


16  GENERAL  METHOD. 

The  following  will  thus  be  our  General  Method :  — 

It  will  be  requisite,  in  a  First  Part,  to  determine 
the  extent  of  Knowledge  within  Experience ;  to  rec- 
ognize Reason  as  competent  to  carry  our  knowledge 
beyond  experience ;  and  then  by  Reason,  to  attain  the 
sure  knowledge  of  a  Being  who  may  be  an  Absolute 
Creator. 

It  will  then  belong  to  a  Second  Part  to  show  that 
no  one  Space  and  one  Time  can  be  determined  in 
common  for  all,  without  a  knowledge  of  fixed  force 
in  place,  and  passing  force  in  period ;  to  contemplate 
how  such  distinguishable  forces  may  be  originated,  and 
by  their  multiplication  and  interaction  a  material  Uni- 
verse ma}^  be  consummated ;  and  then  how  the  super- 
induction  of  a  life-power  may  build  up  all  the  organ- 
isms of  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms,  and  the 
gift  of  Reason  may  elevate  the  animal  to  the  human. 

The  execution  of  the  Plan  must  necessarily  carry 
us  up  to  the  highest  sphere  of  speculation ;  and  yet  a 
careful  insight  will  be  found  adequate  to  guide  our 
way,  and  take  us  safely  through  all  the  mysteries  neces- 
sary to  be  solved  in  the  adventurous  undertaking. 


PART  I. 

KNOWLEDGE  OF  A   CREATOR. 

A  LOGICAL  proof  for  the  Being  of  God  is  an  im- 
possibility, in  the  sense  that  the  very  attempt  to  at- 
tain such  proof  involves  a  logical  absurdity.  It  would 
be  seeking  for  a  primitive  syllogism  that  might  prove 
its  major  proposition.  The  first  syllogism  must  neces- 
sarily assume  its  major  premise.  The  being  of  the 
Creator  must  precede  the  being  of  the  created  Uni- 
verse, within  which  all  sense-experience  must  be  found 
and  all  logical  data  attained ;  and  hence  this  proof  for 
the  being  of  a  Creator  cannot  come  within  the  circum- 
scription of  any  logical  syllogism.  "  No  man  hath  seen 
God  at  any  time,"  nor  has  any  man  seen  that  which 
contains  God ;  hence  the  being  of  God  can  never  be 
distributed  in  the  conclusion  of  a  logical  judgment. 

We  shall  need,  in  this  First  Part,  three  chapters. 

Chap.  I.     Knowledge  limited  within  Experience. 
"     II.     Knowledge  beyond  Experience. 
"   III.     The  carrying  out  of  such  knowledge  to 
the  Being  of  a  Creator. 
2  17 


18  EafOWLEDGE  OF  A   CREATOR. 


CHAPTER  I. 

KNOWLEDGE  RESTRICTED  TO  THAT  WHICH  IS  GAINED 
IN  EXPERIENCE. 

Grecian  thinking  controlled  the  Ancient  Philoso- 
phy. Other  processes  of  thought  were  foreign,  and 
continued  separate,  or  at  most  were  held  subsidiary  to 
this.  The  philosophic  stem,  divided  into  two  main 
branches,  flowering  in  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  which 
at  length  •  exhausted  themselves,  the  one  in  New  Pla- 
tonism,  and  the  other  in  Aristotelian  Scholasticism. 
It  is  not  for  our  purpose  important  that  we  here  note 
their  peculiarities.  Much  of  their  spirit  appears  in 
Modern  Philosophy,  but  it  has  been  by  infusion  rather 
than  genetic  propagation,  since  no  seed  from  either 
branch  of  the  old  was  a  germinating  source  for  the 
vigorous  and  prolific  new  shoot. 

Modern  Philosophy  started  in  doubting,  not  for 
the  sake  of  doubt,  but  that  all  doubting  might  be 
excluded  from  it.  Even  if  amid  otherwise  universal 
doubt,  one  thing  was  indubitable  —  that  there  was 
thinking.  Philosophy  may  throw  itself  upon  conscious 
thought  for  life  and  deliverance  from  all  doubt.  Con- 
scious thinking  immediately  introduces  self-conscious- 
ness, and  thus  thinking  Being,  and  the  test  for  the 
validity  of  the  being  is  the  clearness  of  the  thought. 


KNOWLEDGE  GAINED   IN  EXPERIENCE.  19 

But  the  thought  of  a  most  perfect  Being  is  a  necessity 
as  clear  as  the  thought  of  self,  and  thus  the  being 
of  God  is  as  indubitable  as  my  own  being.  As  think- 
ing gives  spiritual  being,  so  sense  gives  material  be- 
ing, and  clear  sense-perception  must  be  valid,  for  the 
most  perfect  being  could  not  make  senses  which  were 
helplessly  deceptive  without  thereby  impeaching  his 
perfection.  Spirit  and  matter,  thus  known,  were 
also  known  as  wholly  disparate  and  utterly  intercom- 
municable,  and  their  concordant  occurrences  were  re- 
ferred to  a  "  pre-established  harmony  ;  "  and  all  occa- 
sion for  interaction  was  through  the  Deity,  and  known 
as  "  occasional  cause."  All  distinct  appearances  were 
made  modes  and  attributes  of  one  Absolute  Sub- 
stance, in  which  all  further  thought  was  lost,  since  out 
of  this  abyss  there  can  be  found  no  emergent  traces. 
The  absolute  substance  stood  utterly  helpless ;  it  could 
not  move  and  strike,  or,  if  stricken,  it  could  make  no 
rebound. 

Philosophy,  then  necessarily,  turned  all  its  thinking 
into  the  channel  of  experience.  Sense  opens  to  us  all 
we  know ;  and  Sensationalism,  i.  e..  Empiricism,  is  the 
source  for  all  possible  Human  philosophizing.  The 
well-known  *'  Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding " 
presents  the  clear  outline  of  the  general  system. 
Mind  is  originally  destitute  of  ideas  innate  or  imparted, 
and  stands  utterly  void.  Its  experience  is  from  two 
sources;  Sensation  being  an  inlet  from  the  outer 
world,  and  Reflection  opening  to  what  passes  from 
the  mind  itself  in  its  own  exercises.     We  thus  know 


20  KNOWLEDGE  OF  A   CREATOR. 

material  qualities  and  mental  exercises,  aDd  can  form 
judgments  by  comparing,  abstracting,  and  combining, 
what  is  thus  given/  Reason  is  no  faculty  for  origi- 
nal knowledge,  but  for  inducing  relative  ideas  and 
deducing  concluded  judgments.  An  abstraction  of 
extended  sensations  gives  place,  and  an  abstraction 
of  limits  to  place  gives  pure  Space ;  and  so  also  an 
abstraction  of  successive  sensations  gives  period,  and 
an  abstraction  of  all  limits  to  period  gives  pure  Time. 
The  idea  of  substance  was  a  riddle,  for  abstracting 
sense-qualities  and  exercises  leaves  only  space  and 
time,  and  yet  the  qualities  need  the  substances  to  be 
in  space  and  time.  Ultimately  the  idea  of  Cause  in- 
duced a  similar  perplexity.  If  denied  to  be  attained 
in  some  supra-sensible  manner,  then  the  ideas  of  sub- 
stance and  cause  were  necessarily  inexplicable  as  hav- 
ing an}^  reality.  Sense  gives  sequences,  and  Cause 
supposes  a  necessity  of  connection  in  the  sequences, 
and  this  assumed  idea  of  necessary  connection  was 
explained  as  being  the  factitious  result  of  the  fre- 
quent repetition  of  the  experience.  Other  ideas  tran- 
scending experience  perplexed  the  empiricist  from 
time  to  time,  and  received  his  solutions  as  plausi- 
bly as  practicable,  or  else  were  left  as  mysteries  for 
future  elucidations,  or  as  incapable  of  human  cogni- 
tion. 

And  here  it  may  be  allowed  that  experience  does 
give  a  common  highway  of  knowledge,  in  which,  for  a 
short  distance,  all  walk  together.  We  wake  in  con- 
sciousness through  sensation,  and  continued  percep- 


KNOWLEDGE  GAINED  IN  EXPERIENCE.  21 

tions  perpetuate  consciousness.  Past  perceptions  may 
be  made  present  recollections,  and  these  may  be  sub- 
jected in  reflection  to  analysis,  comparison,  abstrac- 
tion, and  connection  in  judgments  and  general  classi- 
fication ;  and  we  may  thus  have  each  his  sense-world 
ordered  and  arranged  in  his  own  experience,  and  each 
may  say  for  himself  what  is,  and  what  has  been ;  but 
when  we  inquire,  Why  thus  ?  and  seek  to  know  what 
must  be,  —  no  perception  of  sense,  nor  any  logical 
judgment  according  to  sense,  can.  find  an  answer.  All 
is  within  experience,  and  there  is  no  organ  to  look 
through  and  beyond  experience,  and  thus  conscious 
experience  itself  can  have  no  explanation.  No  sense 
can  perceive  how  it  perceives,  and  hence  there  can 
be  no  possible  interpretation  of  our  knowing,  nor  any 
settling  of  the  validity  of  that  which  appears  in  con- 
scious experience.  Yea,  the  sense  alone  never  seeks 
to  rise  above  itself,  and  ask  a  reason  for  its  own  being 
and  perceiving.  That  we  irrepressibly  have  such  in- 
quiries, and  can  never  be  restrained  from  starting 
them  anew  after  every  repulse,  and  yearn  some  way 
to  get  round  and  over  our  encountered  difficulties  in 
knowing  truths  eternal  beyond  experience,  is  an  abun- 
dant proof  that  man  has  a  higher  faculty  than  sense 
and  logical  judgment ;  and  that  some  organ  of  intelli- 
gence is  in  humanity  that  the  brute  never  had;  and 
as  it  rises  above  sense  in  its  inquiries,  so  must  it  be 
competent  to  go  beyond  sense  in  its  knowledge,  or 
its  capacity  for  inquiring  is  worse  than  in  vain  to  it. 
A  sense-philosophy  cannot  satisfy,  though  such  phi- 


22  KNOWLEDGE   OF  A  CREATOR. 

losophy  has  become  nearly  all-prevalent.  It  is  in- 
teresting in  itself,  and  for  our  present  purpose  neces- 
sary, that  we  note  discriminatingly  some  of  its  most 
prominent  theories  in  their  variety. 

The  notice  taken  of  these  theories  will  best  sub- 
serve its  purpose,  if  we  disregard  the  order  of  time 
in  which  they  were  promulgated,  and  arrange  them 
as  they  in  themselves  exhibit  the  promptings  of  reason 
more  manifestly,  though  their  authors  recognized  no 
distinct  Faculty  of  Reason-,  except  in  some  of  the  last 
examples  given. 

1.  Pure  Empiricism  in  the  Positive  Philosophy. — 
In  the  early  age,  as  history  opens,  it  is  quite  in  course 
to  find  that  the  observation  of  the  changes  and  move- 
ments in  the  world  around  has  induced  the  convic- 
tion that  some  power  above  nature  has  controlled  the 
changes  and  motions,  and  that  the  gods,  though  keep- 
ing themselves  concealed,  are  the  great  agents  in 
working  out  the  passing  events.  Their  voices  are 
heard  in  the  thunder  and  the  earthquake ;  tempests 
and  pestilences  are  the  expressions  of  their  displeas- 
ure; and  prevalent  health,  prosperity,  and  fruitful- 
ness  are  the  results  of  divine  benignity. 

Longer  experience,  and  with  closer  observation,  as- 
signs the  powers  at  work  in  the  material  changes  to 
some  occult  efficiences  within  and  about  the  objects 
themselves,  and  these  secret  forces  and  hidden  enti- 
ties in  nature  are  moving  the  dead  matter  of  the  world 
about,  and  in  the  directions  of  their  own  energy.    The 


POSITIVE   PHILOSOPHY.  23 

Theologic  faith  fades  out,  and  then  the  Metaphysic 
age  dawns  in  human  history.  Subtle  discussions,  ab- 
stract reasonings,  and  ideal  speculations,  in  a  thou- 
sand varied  and  ingenious  forms,  occupy  the  attention 
of  the  strongest  minds  through  long  generations. 

But  anon  the  metaphysic  age  passes  as  necessarily 
as  had  the  theologic ;  since  sharpened  observation  had 
attained  to  clear  and  positive  consciousness  of  the 
phenomenal  world,  and  the  wise  have  learned  to  dis- 
criminate between  immediate  perceptions  and  fancied 
notions,  or  fictitious  ideals.  If  these  occult  notions 
have  any  real  entity,  they  are  beyond  human  knowl- 
edge, and  outside  of  all  conscious  experience,  and 
science  learns  to  care  nothing  about  them.  The 
Positive  age  is  thus  a  sure  occurrence  in  its  time, 
in  which  the  superstitions  of  the  theologic  and  the 
dreaming  fictions  of  the  metaphysic  age  have  become 
merged  and  lost  forever,  as  controlling  matters  of  in- 
terest and  attention,  in  the  age  of  Positivism.  The 
sages  of  humanity  have  now  the  grand  work,  uninter- 
ruptedly, to  get  and  spread  the  light  of  positive  sci- 
ence ;  attaining,  arranging,  and  classifying  all  that 
comes  in  to  conscious  experience.  Humanity  must 
needs  have  passed  all  these  stages  to  the  last,  and, 
indeed,  every  individual  mind  has  its  theologic,  meta- 
physic, and  positive  period,  while  in  the  last  only,  all 
illusions  vanish,  and  true  science  prevails. 

The  order  of  procedure  in  positive  science  is  from 
the  simple  to  the  complex,  till  we  reach  and  make 
clear   all    the   complications   of   nature    and   human 


24  KNOWLEDGE   OF  A   CREATOR. 

society.  The  science  of  Sociology,  in  the  family, 
the  community,  and  the  state,  organizing  all  rela- 
tions and  occupations,  and  overcoming  the  resist- 
ances of  nature,  and  the  selfish  inclinations  and  ani- 
mal passions  of  the  uncultivated  races,  finally  intro- 
duces order,  freedom,  and  social  contentment,  and 
opens  the  way  to  the  indefinite  development  and 
progressive  maturity  and  perfection  of  the  human 
species. 

By  a  strange  personal  experience,  a  rehgious  cul- 
tus  was  superinduced  upon  the  positive  science, 
which  it  is  taught  will  harmonize  all  the  family  of 
man  in  universal  unity,  as  if  Humanity  had  become 
itself  one  great  Being.  The  religious  age,  spontane- 
ous in  its  devotion,  was  originally  exercised  in  feti- 
chism,  worshipping  any  rock,  tree.,  or  animptil  that 
fancy  proposed.  Then  polytheism  abounded ;  fol- 
lowed by  monotheism  as  the  mind  rose  to  higher  unity, 
till  ultimately  the  true,  living,  thinking,  feeling,  lov- 
ing. Humanity  is  the  object  and  end  of  all  worship ; 
and  the  greatest  names  of  history,  as  manifestations 
of  humanity,  are  worthy  of  a  qualified  homage. 

Positivism  is  thus  in  theory  consistent  with  em- 
piricism, and  a  consequent  of  it.  It  attempts  to 
carry  out  its  own  adopted  dictum,  that  the  human 
mind  has  no  function  that  can  make  itself  objective 
to  itself.  Any  single  sense  may  as  well  attempt  to 
examine  and  expound  itself,  as  the  entire  conscious- 
ness to  attempt  determining  the  validity  of  its  reveal- 
ings.     And  yet  with  all  this  consistency  in  claim  and 


POSITIVE  PHILOSOPHY.  25 

theory,  its  whole  procedure  evinces  the  presence 
and  perpetual  prompting  of  the  function  of  Reason 
which  it  so  peremptorily  discards.  If  there  were 
nothing  but  elements  given  in  experience  and  their 
use  in  reflection,  there  could  be  no  attempt  to  over- 
look experience,  and  determine  how  much  it  might 
know.  Perception,  and  judgment  according  to  per- 
ception, would  go  on  just  as  occasion  was  given ;  but 
from  nowhere  could  come  the  impulse  to  examine  ex- 
perience, and  learn  how  far  the  consciousness  might 
spread  its  light.  The  brute  perceives  in  sense,  and 
judges  according  to  sense,  as  truly,  and  often  as  ex- 
actly, as  the  man ;  but  no  animal  ever  manifested  the 
capability  or  the  curiosity  to  examine  his  experience, 
and  determine  the  limits  of  his  knowledge.  That  the 
Positivist  is  able  to  so  emphatically  assert  his  positiv- 
ism, carries  in  it  a  sure  evidence  that  there  is  work- 
ing in  him  a  higher  intelligence  than  any  sense-expe- 
rience can  reach. 

And  then  there  is,  moreover,  his  constant  assump- 
tion of  Necessity  and  Law  in  nature,  which  can  come 
from  no  element  attainable  in  sensation.  Experience 
may  remember  past  observations,  in  the  uniform  com- 
bination of  some  qualities  and  invariable  sequence  of 
some  events,  and  such  order  of  experience  may  be 
transferred  to  an  outer  world,  and  called  an  order 
of  nature ;  but  this  would  then  be  only  a  way  that 
nature  was  seen  to  have,  and  not  any  necessary  be- 
hest that  nature  is  forced  to  obey.  Law  is  more 
than  the  fact  of  order  j   it  is  an  imposition  from  a 


26  KNOWLEDGE   OF  A  CREATOR. 

source  that  binds  to  order,  and  is  a  notion  which 
only  can  flash  in  from  a  light  that  overshines  expe- 
rience itself. 

And  then  Positivism  has  also  its  Religion  with  itb 
cultus  of  sacred  ordinances  and  ritual  ceremonies. 
True  in  form  to  its  restriction  of  all  knowledge  to 
experience,  its  religion  has  no  higher  deity  than 
Humanity,  and  its  most  sacred  shrines  are  the  names 
of  the  renowned  men  and  women  of  the  ages,  to 
whom  homages,  and  festivals,  and  votive  offerings 
are  dedicated,  and  the  calendar  months  are  named 
from  the  most  eminent,  and  the  days  of  the  week 
from  other  illustrious  benefactors ;  yet  even  such  a 
service  could  never  be  assumed  as  binding  itself 
upon  human  observance,  were  there  not  in  man  a 
deeper  claim  than  any  sense  can  awaken.  But  be- 
cause social  life  is  itself  of  the  reason,  and  has  its 
rights  and  duties,  it  reaches  beyond  the  wants  which 
make  the  cattle  herd  together,  and  thus  the  religion 
Positivism  inculcates,  born  of  social  ties  and  sympa- 
thetic claims,  would  never  have  been  even  specula- 
tively instituted,  were  it  not  that  already  in  the 
priest  and  the  worshipper  there  is  a  spirit  seeking 
supernatural  communion,  and  binding  bach  from  all 
finite  good  to  an  exhaustless  source  of  eternal  good- 
ness. While  Positivism  knows  not  its  use  of  the  rea- 
son, it  still  evinces  the  worJcing  of  the  reason,  and 
that  it  has  been  deeply  quickened  and  prompted  by 
reason. 

With  the  observed  uniformities  in  experience,  and 


POSITIVE  PHILOSOPHY.  27 

these  in  their  connections  taken  as  laws  in  nature,  as 
if  they  were  more  than  facts  found,  even  as  necessi- 
ties imposed,  it  is  true  the  human  mind  may  accu- 
mulate its  observed  facts,  and  physical  science  may 
sort  and  classify  them  endlessly  as  experience  at- 
tains them,  while  all  philosophic  inquiry  is  held  in 
abeyance.  Yet  will  not  the  enterprise  of  reason  be 
ever  so  satisfied  or  repressed.  The  faculty  is  there, 
though  unrecognized,  and  its  living  energies  will 
prompt  speculative  inquiries  into  these  uniformities 
and  invariable  sequences  of  nature.  Science  itself 
soon  learns  that  it  can  make  its  way  with  far  greater 
facility,  when  it  is  helped  to  a  ready  anticipation  of 
its  probable  hypotheses  by  a  given  direction  to  the 
course  of  its  inductions.  Thus  both  the  spontaneous 
impulses  of  the  faculty,  and  the  wants  of  science,  will 
combine  to  urge  on  philosophical  investigations  ;  and 
humanity  can  never  rest  in  barely  perceiving  and 
classifying  the  facts  of  experience,  but  must  go  be- 
yond the  positive  in  sense,  and  attempt,  at  least,  to 
know  experience  as  universally  and  necessarily  de- 
termined. The  ages  will  be  seeking  for  the  reasons 
why  its  passing  experiences  are  ever  thus,  and  this 
is  nothing  other  than  finding  the  ultimate  truths  in 
the  insight  of  reason  itself  Reason's  insight  is  the 
last  reason  for  anything,  and  man  is  never  at  rest  till 
his  clear  insight  and  comprehending  oversight  sees 
beyond  the  facts,  and  finds  the  facts  themselves  to  be 
reasonable.  No  matter  how  positive  the  man  may  be 
in  the  observed  order  of  his  facts,  and  that  he  has  it 


28  KNOWLEDGE    OF   A    CREATOR. 

as  the  long  experience  of  ages  has  given  it ;  he  wants 
to  know  the  long  order,  not  merely  as  positive  fact, 
but  as  imposed  law ;  and  even  the  positivist  himself 
talks  freely  of  the  laws  of  nature,  and  the  obligations 
of  society  ;  for  no  man's  speech  can  satisfy  his  inward 
conviction,  which  does  not  carry  in  it  the  meaning, 
that  there  are  a  priori  bonds  on  all  the  facts  of  na- 
ture and  communings  of  society. 

It  might  thus  have  been  anticipated,  just  as  it  oc- 
curs, that  the  reason  should  thrust  up  its  irrepressible 
inquiries,  and  in  ignorance  of  the  source  from  whence 
the  asking  comes,  the  mind  should  set  some  lower 
faculty  to  the  task  of  finding  an  answer.  The  sense 
and  logical  understanding  are  set  to  solve  the  prob- 
lems the  reason  propounds,  and  which  will  really 
amount  to  nothing  else  than  asking  reasons  for  a  fact, 
and  then  giving  another  fact  in  answer.  Experience 
cannot  ask  for  itself,  why  itself  is  so  :  the  reason 
makes  the  demand,  and  experience  can  as  little 
answer  as  inquire  to  any  purpose.  When  it  has 
given  one  fact  to  explain  others,  which  must  be  its 
only  way,  there  is  still  the  same  thing  to  be  gone 
over.  The  reason  can  never  stand  on  any  last  fact, 
and  cease  her  inquiries.  She  must  get  above  the 
fact,  and  see  through  the  fact  a  transcendental  prin- 
ciple, and  no  empirical  answer  can  be  other  than  illu- 
sory. And  yet,  notwithstanding  the  manifest  absur- 
dity of  attaining  any  end  in  such  a  process,  we  shall 
constantly  find  modern  philosophy  very  largely  at 
work  in  the  interpretation  of  experience  by  experi- 


EMPIRICISM   BY   LAWS   OF   ASSOCIATION.  29 

ence,  and  striving  to  grow  wise,  or  at  least  evince  its 
love  of  wisdom,  by  pushing  the  mystery  of  one  iact 
back  into  another,  till  the  remoteness  quenches  all 
further  curiosity.  The  Positive  Philosophy  can  never 
be  truly  positive,  and  attain  and  keep  a  fixed  posi- 
tion, except  by  a  perpetual  delusion. 

2.  Empiricism  as  expounded  by  the  Laws  of 
Association.  —  While  Positivism  seeks  to  repress  all 
attempts  at  explaining  why  nature  has  her  uniformi- 
ties, and  holds  it  enough  to  take  experience  as  it  is, 
and  by  careful  study  make  the  most  of  it,  there  have 
not  been  wanting  other  theories  for  accounting  why 
experience  is  so  orderly,  even  while  admitting  and 
strenuously  teaching  that  our  knowledge  cannot 
transcend  the  sense-consciousness  within  which  all 
experience  must  be.  Assuming  a  Divine  power  out 
of  and  over  all  experience,  it  might  be  held  as  it 
variously  had  been,  that  this  outside  power  did  all  the 
work  of  arranging,  either  by  occasional  interposi- 
tions, or  by  a  pre-established  harmony,  or  in  an  ori- 
ginal Divine  Constitution ;  while  others  dispensed  with 
any  outside  agency,  and  said  nature  must  have  some 
relations,  and  as  well  those  according  with  our  own 
experience  as  any  other,  and  we  need  only  to  con- 
sider all  things  as  a  "  fortuitous  concurrence ;  "  and 
still  others,  admitting  the  present  mystery,  proposed 
in  all  humility,  from  imbecility  of  faculties,  to  lie  still 
and  wait  for  future  disclosures.  All  explanation  was 
arbitrary,  or  fortuitous,  or  hopelessly  impossible. 


30  KNOWLEDGE    OP  A   CREATOR. 

An  independent  and  acute  scrutiny  ascertained  the 
impossibility  of  determining  the  necessary  connec- 
tions of  cause  and  effect  in  experience,  by  any  knowl- 
edge gained  by  experience.  The  sole  purpose  of 
any  inquiry  must  be,  not  to  know  any  such  determined 
connections,  but  to  explain  why  the  human  mind 
comes  to  deem  the  sequences  in  cause  and  effect  to  be 
necessarily  connected.  And  the  short  statement  of 
the  explanation  is  the  force  of  Habit.  We  find  cer- 
tain sequences  occui'ring  so  frequently  in  the  same 
order,  experience  has  them  so  often  and  for  so  long  a 
time,  that,  although  no  connecting  link  comes  with- 
in sensation,  yet  the  frequent  repetition  induces  an 
idea  or  semblance  of  such  link,  and  this  becomes  a 
belief,  a  confirmed  conviction,  that  there  is  such  in- 
terlinking, and  all  originating  in  habit.  The  common- 
sense  conviction,  in  this  way,  of  the  laws  of  experi- 
ence, becomes  so  controlling  that  no  testimony  of  their 
miraculous  violation  ought,  to  influence  us.  But  such 
strength  of  conviction  was  only  subjective  seeming, 
and  not  at  all  any  known  necessity  in  objective  being. 
This  the  clear-sighted  philosopher  well  knew,  and  on 
it  was  built,  with  logical  consistency,  an  impregnable 
scepticism.  Experic  ce  can  account  for  the  common 
conviction  that  the  connections  in  nature  are  neces- 
sary, but  no  judgment  in  experience  can  possibly  show 
any  validity  for  the  conviction  that  there  is  any  such 
necessary  connection.  All  reasoning  from  the  connec- 
tions of  cause  and  effect  rest  only  upon  the  illusion 


EMPIRICISM  BY  LAWS   OF  ASSOCIATION.  31 

of  habit,  and  never  can  be  the  confirmation  of  truth 
and  knowledge. 

And  now,  closely  allied  to  this,  and  indeed  almost 
a  carrying  out  of  the  same  theory  a  little  more  cir- 
cumstantially and  minutely,  is  that  above  announced 
as  resting  upon  the  law  of  Association.  There  is  the 
same  limiting  of  knowledge  to  experience,  and  in  con- 
sistency with  this,  expounding  our  convictions  of  an 
outer  world  and  its  connections,  and  our  assent  to  all 
necessary  truths,  on  a  similar  subjective  basis  a  little 
more  completely  worked  out  and  systematically  ar- 
ranged. This  theory  assumes  that  past  sensations 
afford  the  sufficient  occasion  for  expecting  future  sen- 
sations in  certain  conditions,  and  that  the  order  of 
past  experience  becomes  a  law  of  association  by  which 
the  expected  future  sensations  in  experience  are 
regulated.  The  law  of  association  is  described  in  the 
various  forms  that  former  experiences  have  deter- 
mined for  it,  and  these  forms  of  applying  the  law  of 
association  sufficiently  account  for  our  belief  of  an 
external  world,  and  its  orderly  arrangement  in  con- 
scious experience,  though  we  can  have  no  knowledge 
that  such  outer  world  is  in  existence. 

Thus  any  one  may  say  of  himself:  A  little  reflec- 
tion teaches  me  that  my  current  fleeting  sensations 
are  of  little  account  in  my  conception  of  the  existing 
world. around  me,  but  that  there  are  possible  sensa- 
tions of  innumerable  variety,  which  under  supposable 
conditions  I  deem  I  could  at  this  moment  experience, 
and  it  is  to  these  possible  sensations  that  I  am  obliged 


32  KMOWLEDGE    OF   A   CREATOR. 

to  turn,  as  important  in  awaking  me  to  the  concep- 
tion of  an  outer  world.  My  actual  sensations  are 
transient,  while  these  possibilities  of  sensations  are 
permanent ;  and  in  giving  to  them  distinctive  names, 
they  come  to  be  apprehended  as  distinctive  things. 
In  any  group  of  such  possible  sensations  I  have  asso- 
ciated the  whole  from  some  one  that  was  an  element 
in  a  former  group  of  actual  sensations,  and  this  asso- 
ciative process  has  furnished  the  connections  in  all 
the  quahties  of  the  thing,  and  from  a  natural  forget- 
fulness  of  the  associative  process,  the  thing  is  taken 
as  having  these  fixed  connections  from  necessity. 
These  abiding  things,  therefore,  and  not  the  transient 
sensations,  I  associate  in  fixed  orders  of  succession, 
just  as  I  have  found  my  transient  sensations  succeed- 
ing each  other,  and  it  is  to  these  permanent  possibili- 
ties of  sensations  that,  in  the  obliviscence  of  the 
association,  I  apply  my  conviction  of  necessary  con- 
nection as  cause  and  effect,  and  thereby  make  up  my 
world  from  these  connected  possibilities  of  sensations. 
I  can,  at  will,  withdraw  myself  from  the  transient 
sensations  that  have  been  given  me,  by  closing  my 
senses,  or  turning  the  organ  another  way,  but  I  can- 
not put  from  me  these  permanent  possibilities  of  sen- 
sations at  will,  since  I  deem  them  to  be  abiding 
through  all  my  changes. 

I  find  others,  moreover,  manifesting  their  appre- 
hension, not  of  their  transient  sensations,  but  of  these 
permanent  possibilities  of  sensations,  as  if  their  ex- 
perience in  this  were  in  common  with  mine.     In  this 


EMPIRICISM   BY  LAWS   OF   ASSOCIATION.  33 

way  there  is  for  me,  and  for  others  in  common  with 
me,  a  world  of  possibilities  of  sensations  connected 
according  to  laws,  and  which  must  so  be  taken  by  me 
as  a  world  existing  external  to  me  and  others.  The 
actual  sensations  of  the  city  of  Calcutta  must,  in  any 
case,  be  fleeting,  but  the  permanent  possibilities  of 
sensation,  on  condition  of  my  sailing  up  the  Hoogly 
by  daylight,  must  be  my  existing  Calcutta,  ordered 
and  arranged  according  to  applied  laws  of  association 
for  me  and  others.  Matter,  therefore,  is  to  be  taken 
as  a  permanent  possibility  of  sensations,  as  it  exists 
in  our  consciousness;  and  such  material  world  we 
may  know,  and  believe  to  be  real,  but  no  other  world 
can  be  our  world  of  experience.  The  permanent 
possibilities  of  sensations  outlast  all  our  changes, 
and  will  be  for  others  when  we  are  gone,  just  as 
they  are  now  for  other  beings  in  common  with  our- 
selves. 

And  as  with  the  organic  senses  for  matter,  so 
with  the  inner  sense  for  mind.  The  inner  exer- 
cises may  all  in  common  be  termed  feelings,  as 
they  affect  the  consciousness  ;  and  the  actual  feel- 
ings, like  the  actual  sensations,  arie  transient,  and 
little  to  be  regarded  as  making  up  the  known  mental 
world;  but  the  permanent  possibilities  of  feelings 
must  make  up  what  1  know  as  m}^  one  perduring 
mind.  The  one  capacity  for  permanent  possibilities 
of  feeling  which  may  continue  through  reverie,  or 
fainting,  or  sleep,  or  bodily  dissolution,  is  what  must 
be  known  as  the  perpetuation  of  myself  There  are 
3 


34  KNOWLEDGE    OF   A   CEEATOR. 

some  differences  to  be  noticed  between  permanent 
possibilities  of  sensations  and  permanent  possibilities 
of  feelings,  among  which  the  most  important  is,  that 
the  former  are  possibilities  to  others  as  well  as  to 
myself,  but  the  latter  are  a  series  of  possibilities  in 
my  life  to  myself  alone.  But  this  permanency,  as 
myself,  may  be  determined  as  existing  in  other  series 
of  possible  feeling,  as  otherselves  also.  Other  figures 
of  seeing  and  speaking  possibilities  I  know,  as  I  know 
my  own  seeing  and  speaking  body ;  and  I  am  con- 
scious of  modified  bodily  states  followed  by  feelings, 
and  these  again  followed  by  some  outward  conduct  in 
myself.  Now,  the  first  as  peculiar  state  of  body,  and 
the  last  as  peculiar  conduct,  I  cannot  connect  in  my- 
self except  as  through  the  intermediate  feelings.  My 
body  is  naked,  and  I  put  on  clothes ;  my  stomach  is 
empty,  and  I  take  food ;  but  I  connect  the  first  two  by 
the  feeling  of  cold,  and  the  last  two  by  the  feeling  of 
hunger,  only  in  my  consciousness.  I  get,  in  the  ob- 
servation of  other  seeing  and  speaking  figures,  the 
first  and  the  last,  but  1  do  not  get  their  intermediate 
feeling  to  connect  them.  Still,  as  I  know  their  state 
of  body  and  subsequent  conduct  to  be  as  mine  to- 
gether, I  legitimately  infer  the  middle  link  of  feeling 
to  be  present,  and  connect  the  two  in  them,  as  it  does 
and  must  in  me,  and  thus  that  they  are  sentient  beings 
as  I  am.  They  have  bodies  as  mine,  exhibit  acts  sig- 
nificant as  mine,  which  indicate  feeling  as  mine,  and 
thus  that  they  are  otherselves  as  I  am  myself.  So  it 
is  competent  for  me  to  know  other  series  of  feelings 


EMPIRICISM  BY  LAWS   OF  ASSOCIATION.  35 

than  my  own ;  to  know  even  a  series  that  is  super- 
human or  divine,  from  knowing  manifestations  of 
superhuman  or  divine  thought  and  feeling.  I  may  con- 
ceive a  thread  of  consciousness  perpetuated  through 
an  unending  series,  and  believe  in  an  immortality. 
Mind,  as  a  series  of  feelings,  with  the  background  of 
perpetuated  possibilities  of  feeling,  is,  therefore,  an 
object  for  our  subjective  consciousness,  though  we 
may  not  be  able,  and  truly  are  not  competent,  to  know 
such  a  world  of  spiritual  beings  actually  existing. 

But  there  is  one  part  of  this  knowledge,  in  subjec- 
tive experience,  which  the  philosophy  itself  admits  to 
be  wholly  inscrutable  by  any  experience.  I  remem- 
ber the  past  parts  of  the  series  ;  I  may  expect  future 
parts;  and  thus  the  one  myself  is  in  all  the  series, 
past,  present,  and  future.  The  mental  series  is  in  this 
peculiar.  The  material  series  is  known  only  by  others 
than  itself,  even  by  the  mental,  and  by  that  alone ; 
but  the  mental  lias  its  own  thread  of  consciousness 
throughout,  as  a  series  which  is  aware  of  itself.  Here, 
it  is  honestly  recognized,  that  the  theory  faces  an  in- 
explicable mystery ;  since  it  cannot  be  expounded  to 
experience,  how  a  past  fact  and  a  future  fact  can  at 
once  be  a  present  fact.  And  here,  the  determining 
of  a  series,  that  shall  know  both  its  past  and  future  to 
belong  to  a  present  self,  is  ingenuously  left  outside 
the  theory,  waiting  some  other  means  of  solution. 

But  this  law  of  association  is  made  to  reach  much 
further,  and  mediate  a  knowledge  beyond  the  experi- 
ence of  matter  and  of  mind  as  given  in  the  fact  of 


36  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A   CREATOR. 

consciousness,  even  to  the  determining  of  intuitive 
knowledge  in  mathematics.  The  necessary  truth  of 
geometrical  axioms  and  demonstrations  is  made  to  be 
a  matter  of  experience,  through  the  medium  of  associ- 
ation. And  just  as  we  did  let  slip  the  consciousness 
of  the  associative  process,  in  the  connection  of  the 
sensations  in  substances  and  attributes,  causes  and 
effects,  and  deemed  thus  the  connections  to  be  neces- 
sary and  immediately  known,  so  also  in  our  oblivis- 
cence  of  our  associations  from  experience  in  mathe- 
matical truths,  do  we  deem  their  relations  to  be  neces- 
sary, and  our  apprehensions  of  them  immediate  intui- 
tions. Thus  we  have  found,  invariabl}^,  that  two  things 
put  together  with  two  other  things  have  made  four 
things,  and  in  the  expectation  of  any  future  process 
of  so  putting  two  and  two  things  together,  we  over- 
look the  association  of  it  from  our  past  experience, 
and  then  think  that  we  immediately  see  the  two  and 
two  things  together  to  be  four  things.  The  knowl- 
edge that  two  and  two  make  four  is  from  no  known 
necessity  in  the  case,  nor  any  intuition  of  a  universal 
truth ;  but  only  from  association  through  former  ex- 
perience, which  associative  process  we  overlook,  and 
deem  the  relation  between  the  two  and  two  and  the 
four  to  be  an  immediate  intuition.  If  when  two  and  two 
things  had  been  put  together  in  our  past  experience, 
there  had  always  been,  by  some  jugglery  or  miracle, 
another  thing  secretly  interposed,  so  that  the  sum- 
ming up  should  have  been  five,  then  would  the 
associative    process    have    been   accordingly   in   our 


EMPIRICISM   BY  LAWS   OP   ASSC^xxx^,.  ^,  ^ 

anticipated    future   additions   of   two  — --^^  «-•-     ^ 

passing  the  association  we  should  have  acquired  the 
mathematical  intuition  that  two  and  two  are  five. 

So  again,  our  invariable  experience  has  been,  that 
on  round  bodies  becoming  cubes,  they  have  ceased  to 
be  round,  and  that  cubes  becoming  round,  they  have 
ceased  to  be  cubes;  or  when  bounded  by  straight  lines, 
the  invariable  experience  has  been  that  more  than 
two  lines  have  been  needed  to  make  out  the  complete 
limitation ;  and  hence  the  association  from  such  expe- 
rience puts  the  permanent  possibilities  of  sensation 
after  the  same  form,  and  letting  fall  from  conscious- 
ness the  association,  we  deem  it  to  be  an  intuition, 
that  there  cannot  be  cubical  spheres,  nor  spherical 
cubes,  nor  can  two  straight  lines  enclose  a  space. 
If  our  two  eyes  had  been  made  invariably  to  give  a 
cube  with  a  sphere  and  a  sphere  with  a  cube,  by 
some  double  vision  in  the  consciousness;  or  had  we 
never  known  two  straight  lines  but  as  they  appear 
together  on  a  railroad  track,  when  perspectively  they 
approach  each  other  on  opposite  sides  of  us;  we  should 
then  have  intuitively  known  that  a  cube  must  also  be 
a  sphere,  and  a  sphere  a  cube,  and  that  two  straight 
lines  must  always  enclose  a  space.  The  determining 
rule  is  the  order  of  association  according  to  former 
experience;  and  the  permanent  possibilities  of  sensa- 
tions take  on  the  same  order,  and  passing  over  the 
association,  we  have  left  to  us  the  supposed  immedi- 
ate intuition. 

And   now  this   is  very   ingeniously  wrought   out, 


38  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A   CREATOR. 

strictly  in  accordance  with  the  psychology  that 
knowledge  is  limited  by  experience.  It  is  no  reproach 
to  the  philosophy,  that  the  externality  and  necessity 
of"  the  uniform  order  of  the  objects  of  experience  are 
only  a  subjective  seeming,  and  no  possible  knowing ; 
nor  is  it  any  conviction  of  logical  absurdity  to  show, 
that  such  laws  of  nature  in  experience  would  be  only 
laws  of  meAtal  association,  and  that  the  other  men 
here  are  only  other  as  men  are  in  our  dreams,  and 
their  manifestation  of  similar  feelings  and  convictions 
with  ours  is  only  a  doubling  of  the  subjective  seem- 
ing, as  when  we  might  dream  others  were  dreaming 
as  we  dream  ;  for  all  this  is  understood  from  the  start; 
and  since  the  human  mind  cannot  push  its  knowledge 
beyond  what  is  given  in  conscious  sensation,  the  entire 
credit  which  the  philosopher  asks  should  be  accorded 
to  him  is,  not  that  he  has  shown  there  is  any  outer 
world,  but  how  experience  may  seem  to  be  outward, 
and  orderly  arranged ;  and  that  he  has  done  this  logi- 
cally, from  the  data  given  in  experience  alone. 

But  the  deep  reproof  to  be  applied  to  the  philoso- 
phy is  from  another  quarter.  The  inquiry  it  has 
made,  and  so  logically  answered,  is  what  the  rational 
mind  cares  nothing  about.  The  whole  business  is  a 
delusive  play  with  fictions.  The  only  inquiry  made 
is,  Why  does  our  world  of  experience  seem  external 
and  orderly  connected?  And  the  answer  given  is, 
That  there  are  associations  naturally,  and  even  neces- 
sarily, generated  by  the  order  of  our  transient  sensa- 
tions, which  inevitably  induce   such   seeming.     But 


PHILOSOPHY  OP  COMMON  SENSE.  39 

when  we  admit  all  this,  it  is  still  of  no  interest  to  the 
philosophic  mind.  That  asks  yet,  as  from  the  first, 
Why  this  order  of  the  primitive  transient  sensations, 
which  has  determined  the  association  in  the  perma- 
nent possibilities  of  sensations  ?  May  there  not  here 
be  an  insight  to  an  outer  and  orderly  material  world? 
Reason  stands  knocking  at  this  door,  and  cannot  be 
deluded  into  any  interest  with  the  logic  that  may 
seem  to  be  pleasing  itself  about  any  mere  seeming. 
It  will  wait  here  till  this  door  opens. 

3.  Empiricism  in  the  Philosophy  of  Common 
Sense.  —  The  Philosophy  of  Common  Sense  restricts 
all  human  knowledge  to  the  elements  given  in  con- 
scious experience ;  yet  in  some  of  its  varied  theories 
it  assumes  much  that  stands  out  quite  beyond  all 
experience,  and  applies  these  universal  truths  in  dif- 
ferent ways  to  relieve  itself  as  it  may  from  the  dif- 
ficulties it  encounters.  At  its  inception,  it  rested 
mainly  in  the  assumption  that  consciousness  was 
valid  and  its  testimony  final,  and  consistently  at- 
tempted by  no  speculation  to  go  back  of  conscious- 
ness to  find  any  confirmation  for  it.  It  sufficed  it  to 
say,  that  all  scepticism  must  appeal  to  consciousness 
for  the  affirmation  of  its  doubts,  and  if  this  were  not 
valid,  then  its  facts  of  doubting  were  as  insecure  as 
any  facts  immediately  affirmed.  Some  sense  may  be 
so  conditioned  at  times  as  to  delude,  but  this  would 
be  corrected  by  other  senses ;  and  some  persons  may 
be  deceived  in  their  experiences,  but  the  normal  ex- 


40  KNOWLEDGE   OF  A   CREATOR. 

perience  of  the  many  will  prevailingly  control ;  and 
the  collected,  unbiassed  decision  of  common  experi- 
ence must  be  the  ultimate  criterion  of  truth.  Com- 
mon consciousness,  and  logical  judgments  from  the 
facts  of  consciousness,  cover  the  entire  field  of  our 
knowledge. 

Further  reflection  modified  these  assumptions  of 
the  validity  of  the  facts  immediately  given  in  con- 
sciousness. It  came  generally  to  be  admitted  that 
all  the  senses  did  not  alike  give  immediate  knowl- 
edge of  an  outer  world.  Temperature  and  taste, 
odors  and  sounds,  are  rather  feelings  within  us  than 
any  attributes  of  things  without  us,  and  are  primari- 
ly our  sensations,  and  only  secondarily  the  qualities 
of  matter.  The  sense  of  vision  and  of  touch  were 
held  more  directly  to  give  the  attributes  of  outer 
things,  and  from  them  it  was  assumed  that  we  at- 
tained immediately  the  primary  qualities  of  tlie  ma- 
terial world.  And  yet,  in  these  two  senses,  there 
came  to  be  recognized  quite  a  difference  in  the  di- 
rectness of  their  knowledge.  The  nervous  network 
of  the  organs  of  vision  and  of  touch  were  taken  as 
thoroughly  interpenetrated  and  sufi"used  by  the  liv- 
ing intelligent  spirit,  and  here  in  the  nerves,  it  was 
assumed,  spirit  and  matter  came  physiologically  in 
unity.  Any  impression  on  the  organic  nerve  was 
thus  held  to  be  in  immediate  communication  with 
spirit,  and  here  the  matter  in  contact  was  supposed 
to  give  over  its  essential  attributes  directly  to  the 
Bpirit's  intelligence.     And  yet  close  reflection  found 


PHILOSOPHY  OP  COMMON  SENSE.  41 

color  in  vision  to  come  from  outer  things  through  the 
medium  of  light,  and  must  thus  be  a  primary  quality 
of  the  light  rather  than  of  the  illuminated  body.  -Ex- 
tension was  in  the  color,  and  from  the  light ;  and  we 
could  not  thus  attain  directly  the  shapes  of  things, 
and  only  the  shapes  of  colors  which  the  light  brings 
from  the  things.  Two  persons  together  do  not  see 
the  same  object  in  their  vision  of  the  sun,  or  a  star ; 
nor  indeed  do  the  two  eyes  of  the  same  person  see 
together  the  same  thing ;  the  two  only  see  different 
mediate  rays  of  light  from  the  same  thing. 

The  primary  qualities  of  the  real  thing,  it  thus 
comes  to  be  admitted,  must  be  sought  solely  from 
touch ;  since  only  in  the  contact  of  the  organ  with 
the  thing,  can  we  immediately  have  its  primary  qual- 
ity given  over  to  the  sense.  Solidity  was  thus  held 
to  be  a  primary  quality  of  matter,  intrinsically  in  its 
essence,  and  given  to  the  consciousness  in  the  expe- 
rience of  its  impenetrability  by  contact,  and  measured 
in  amount  by  the  comparative  degrees  of  resistance. 
Extension  also  belongs  to  matter  essentially,  and  is 
given  over  to  the  sense  in  touch,  and  measured  by 
the  extended  nerve  in  the  organ  affected,  relatively 
to  other  portions  of  the  living  body,  in  various  ways 
of  contact,  as  by  the  grasp  of  the  hand,  the  sliding 
of  the  finger,  or  the  sweep  of  the  arm.  The  exter- 
nality of  matter  was  also  deemed  to  be  immediately 
attained  by  touch ;  but  its  outness  was  admitted  as 
rather  a  relation  between  matter  and  mind,  than  a 
primary  attribute  of  the  matter  itself.     Thus  common 


42  KNOWLEDGE   OF  A   CREATOR. 

sense  \vas  held  to  have  matter  face  to  face,  and  im- 
raediately  to  take  these  primary  qualities  from  it  into 
consciousness.  The  secondary  qualities  were  allowed 
to  be  only  affections  in  us,  and  to  give  to  the  con- 
sciousness only  the  mode  in  which  outer  things  in 
indirect  ways  affected  our  organs. 

It  might  well  be  objected  to  any  such  theory  of 
intuitive  knowledge  of  matter,  that  the  supposed 
extended  spirit,  in  the  extended  nerve-organism,  does 
not  know  any  extension  except  in  the  affection.  The 
eye  has  no  knowledge  of  the  expanded  retina,  except 
as  the  retina  has  its  content  for  color ;  nor  does  the 
hand  know  extension,  nor  solidity,  till  first  the  im- 
pressed nerve  has  its  sensation.  The  spirit  does  not 
know  extension  because  it  is  diffused,  as  supposed, 
through  an  extended  network  of  nerve-fibres.  The 
nerve  is  still  between  the  outer  matter  and  the  mind, 
and  it  is  the  affection  of  the  nerve  only  that  the  mind 
gets. 

The  true  answer,  however,  to  such  a  theory  of  im- 
mediate knowledge  by  touch,  is  a  direct  denial.  The 
thing  in  contact  with  the  living  nerve  does  not  put 
over  any  part  or  attribute  of  itself  into  the  nerve, 
and  through  that  into  the  consciousness ;  it  can  only 
affect  the  living  nerve,  and  become  a  sensation  ;  and 
the  quality  of  the  thing  is  only  the  way  in  which 
it  has  qualified  our  sense,  and  not  that  any  element 
of  the  thing  has  been  immediately  imparted.  The 
claim  that  we  immediately  know  its  externality  is  an 
affirmation  of  its  complete  outness  still,  and  that  we 


PHILOSOPHY   OF  COMMON  SENSE.  43 

only  know  it  in  the  affection  produced.  The  most 
that  may  be  said  is,  vve  know  the  without  by  what  is 
within  ;  the  thing  by  the  sensation ;  and  this  can  be 
no  immediate  knowledge.  Even  in  contact,  the  whole 
thing  is  outside,  and  the  affection  only  is  given  with- 
in, and  .the  outer  can  only  be  known  through  the 
medium  of  the  inner.  Herein  is  no  intuitive  knowl- 
edge by  touch,  any  more  than  by  any  other  organ. 
All  sense-intuition  is  the  putting  of  the  affectitm  and 
the  intellect  face  to  face  in  the  consciousness,  and 
not  the  thing  and  the  intellect  face  to  face  as  object 
and  subject.  The  insight  of  reason  reads  the  true 
meaning  of  the  sense-symbols,  and  knows  the  thing 
in  the  symbol,  and  can  intelligently  expound  the  pri- 
mary qualities  of  extension  and  solidity ;  but  the 
sense  without  the  reason-function  knows  nothing  be- 
yond the  quality,  whether  in  touch  or  any  other 
organ. 

But  even  with  this  assumption  of  immediate  sense- 
knowing,  the  common  sense  was  helpless  to  connect 
the  qualities  in  any  ordered  experience,  and  fix  the 
objects  in  any  necessary  connections,  and  knovv  na- 
ture as  a  universe.  The  appearances  come  within, 
and  flit  over  the  field  of  consciousness,  as  the  cloud- 
shadows  chase  each  other  over  the  landscape,  and  no 
sense-faculty  can  find  any  determining  medium  for 
connecting  them  in  the  order  of  their  coming  and 
departing.  To  meet  this  exigency,  there  has  been 
the  assumption  of  a  higher  sense-facult}^  than  any 
organic   perceiving,   and   the    afiirming    the    human 


44  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A   CREATOR. 

mind  to  have  an  original  constitutional  endowment 
for  apprehending  the  connections  of  sense-experi- 
ences. Like  the  organic  senses,  this  higher  sense  is 
incompetent  to  overlook  and  comprehend  itself,  and 
expound  its  mode  of  knowing,  and  its  most  confident 
convictions  are  simply  inexplicable  mysteries,  as  if 
they  were  inspired  revelations ;  but  the  universal 
consent,  in  this  common  constitutional  taking  of  uni- 
form combinations  and  sequences  in  experience  as 
necessarily  connected,  is  assumed  to  be  as  safe  a 
reliance  as  the  direct  testimony  of  consciousness. 
This  is  expressed  in  the  various  ways  of  "  primitive 
belief,"  "  universal  assent/'  "  dictates  of  common 
sense,"  in  this  eminent  signification  of  a  sense  above 
organic  perceiving ;  and  by  this  higher  form  of  as- 
sumed sensevapprehension,  they  attain  their  remedy 
for  admitted  organic  deficiencies.  Such  assumed 
higher  sense  is  a  common  endowment  of  humanity ; 
and  this  may  be  cultivated  to  attain  such  judgments 
as  follows :  All  objects  of  perception  must  be  in 
space  and  time ;  qualities  must  have  their  substance, 
and  events  must  have  their  cause  ;  like  qualities  and 
events  must  have  like  substances  and  causes;  na- 
ture's changes  must  be  in  orderly  successions,  and 
she  can  gain  nothing  new,  and  lose  nothing  old ;  and 
others  like  to  these. 

But  such  assumption,  of  some  mysteriously  work- 
ing-sense, is  only  the  manifestation  of  the  distinctive 
working  of  reason  which  has  not  been  recognized  by 
them,  and   for  whose   legitimate   insight   they  have 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  COMMON  SENSE.  45 

ignorantly  substitnted  a  fictitious  foresight  of  proph- 
ecy. The  assumed  Seer  has  a  new  sense  opened 
for  these  higher  communications,  and  all  inexpHcable 
and  mysterious  as  they  are,  we  come  to  put  our  faith 
in  these  revealings  of  truth  beyond  ordinary  percep- 
tions in  consciousness,  and  trust  the  surreptitious 
connections  as  giving  to  experience  an  orderly  and 
necessary  stability  and  uniformity.  The  whole  is  a 
mere  fictitious  psychological  invention. 

There  is  yet  a  further  method,  when  it  is  found 
that  the  human  mind  cannot  rise  in  its  knowledge 
above  the  relations  given  in  experience,  to  open,  by 
a  logical  process,  a  way  for  the  exercise  of  faith,  and 
therein  to  carry  human  belief  quite  beyond  the  pos- 
sibilities of  human  knowledge.  We  may  ascend  in 
our  judgments  from  the  conditioned  to  a  conditioner, 
or  determining  condition,  and  this  in  an  indefinite 
process,  but  can  never  reach  an  ultimate  condition 
which  has  no  determiner.  And  now  this  "  law  of  the 
conditioned  "  is  subjected  to  such  logical  process,  and 
in  the  following  form,  for  the  admission  of  faith  be- 
yond knowledge.  There  may  be  two  contradictory 
propositions,  neither  of  which  can  be  conceived  as 
true,  and  yet  as  contradictory  opposites,  from  the 
logical  law  of  the  excluded  middle,  one  of  them 
must  be  true  ;  and  then  on  the  ground  of  such  a 
conclusion,  we  may  believe  that  to  be  true  which 
can  neither  bo  known  nor  conceived.  And  this  is 
specially   applied   to   two    supersensible   truths,   the 


46  KNOWLEDGE    OP   A   CREATOR. 

coniieqtions  of  nature  into  a  universal  whole ;  and 
the  Being  of  a  God  above  nature. 

Of  the  connections  of  cause  and  effect  into  one 
nature  of  things,  we  may  so  form  a  logical  argument. 
Of  any  perceived  phenomenon  just  occurred,  we  can- 
not conceive  that  it  did  not  previously  exist  in  some 
form.  But  we  can  neither  conceive  of  its  beginning 
with  time,  and  thus  to  include  absolutely  all  time,  nor 
that  it  had  no  beginning,  and  thus  runs  back  through 
infinite  time.  Such  is  the  impotence  of  human 
thought.  But  a  beginning  with  time  and  a  non-begin- 
ning with  time  are  contradictory  opposites;  and  we 
must  conclude  of  this  phenomenon,  that  it  has  either 
beginning  or  non-beginning.  Both  cannot  be  true, 
but  one  must  i  we  cannot  conceive  of  either,  nor 
possibly  know  either ;  yet  we  must  believe  one  or 
the  other  to  be  true.  Our  faith  here  may,  and  even 
must,  run  beyond  all  thought  and  knowledge.  We 
may  thus  believe  in  the  necessary  and  universal  con- 
nections of  cause  and  effect. 

And  so  in  reference  to  the  being  of  an  Infinite  and 
Absolute  Deity.  We  may  say  of  his  omniscience, 
that  it  must  require  a  mode  of  knowing  that  takes 
in  all  the  connections  of  universal  nature,  but  we 
cannot  conceive  it  either  as  running  through  the  in- 
finite successive  changes,  or  as  compassing  the  in- 
finite successions  all  at  once.  The  first  is  the  Infinite, 
the  last  is  the  Absolute,  and  both  alike  unthinkable 
and  unknowable  ;  and  yet  by  the  logical  law  for  con- 
tradictory opposites,  as   above,  while  both  together 


FORCE  FROM  ^MUSCULAR  PRESSURE.  47 

cannot  be,  one  of  them  must  be.  Our  faculties  are 
too  limited  to  think  or  to  know  in  this  sphere,  but 
logic  opens  it  for  human  faith  to  enter.  We  must 
beheve  that  the  Being  who  knows  the  universe  is 
either  an  Infinite  or  an  Absolute  Being,  though  he 
cannot  be  both ;  and  our  faith  cannot  find  on  which 
to  fix. 

In  these  forms  the  philosophy  of  Common  Sense 
exhausts  all  its  expedients.  It  first  assumes  con- 
sciousness to  be  valid  and  sufficient  in  the  aggre- 
gate of  the  senses ;  then  restricts  immediate  knowl- 
edge of  the  outer  world  to  vision,  and  more  specially 
to  touch ;  then  imagines  a  fictitious,  inspired,  and 
prophetic  sense,  that  forecasts  the  successions  of 
nature ;  and  lastly,  by  logic,  supports  a  faith  that 
can  rest  on  no  thought,  and  can  guide  itself  to  a 
specific  object  by  no  possible  reason.  The  whole 
absurdity  and  contradiction,  in  which  this  form  of 
philosophizing  ever  issues,  is  from  limiting  all  knowl- 
edge to  what  h  given  in  experience.  The  unac- 
knowledged faculty  of  reason  they  have,  and  it 
prompts  them  to  get  speculative  truth;  but  they 
put  the  lower  faculties  of  sense  and  logic  to  the 
vain  task  of  solving  the  questionings  of  reason,  and 
of  course  in  their  neglect  of  reason  the  issue  is  folly. 

4.  Experience  op  Force  given  in  Muscular  Pres- 
sure. —  This  is  a  philosophy  which  begins  in  experi- 
ence, and  affirms  that  all  beyond  experience  is  un- 
knowable, and  yet  assumes  to  know  very  far  beyond 


48  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A   CREATOR. 

that  which  sense,  and  all  logical  deduction  from  it, 
could  ever  acquire.  It  is  thus  unwittingly  using  the 
Organ  of  Reason  without  giving  credit  for  it.  Its 
prime  dicta  are,  that  to  think  is  to  distinguish  and 
find  relations  ;  and  thought  can  be  conversant  legiti- 
mately only  with  that  which  is  relative;  while  the 
Infinite  and  the  Absolute  must  to  man  be  ever  un- 
knowable. The  theory  may  be  given  in  the  nar- 
rowest compass  as  follows  :  — 

The  ongoing  of  nature  is  a  process  of  evolution, 
the  law  of  which  is  progression  from  the  homogene- 
ous to  the  heterogeneous,  yet  perpetually  making 
the  heterogeneous  more  and  more  definite  and  co- 
herent. This  is  efi*ected  through  continuous  differen- 
tiations and  disintegrations.  An  indefinite  number 
of  homogeneous  molecules  in  mass  will  differentiate 
and  disintegrate,  and  the  mass  become  more  heter- 
ogeneous in  its  portions ;  and  yet  these  heterogeneous 
portions  will  become  more  and  more  definite  and  co- 
herent, till  the  mass  of  star-mist  shall  become  sun  and 
system. 

The  explanation  of  this  evolution  may  be  thus 
given,  in  the  closest  outline.  Passing  the  other 
senses  and  their  given  perceptions,  even  that  of 
vision  and  its  colored  extensions,  the  sense  of  touch 
is  taken ;  and  this  not  as  tactual  merely,  whereby  tem- 
perature may  be  attained,  but  as  muscular  pressure 
apprehending  resistance.  The  muscles  press  and  are 
pressed,  in  which  we  become  conscious  of  co-existent 
resistances.  Pressure  with  counter-pressure,  at  a  given 


FORCE  FROM  MUSCULAR  PRESSURE.  49 

point,  determines  a  position ;  through  continuous  posi- 
tions, determines  a  line  ;  through  contiguous  positions, 
a  surface ;  and  through  surfaces  in  all   directions,  a 
solid.     The  correlation  of  muscular  energy  and  equiv- 
alent resistance  gives  the  knowledge  of  Force.     The 
muscular  tension  is  in  consciousness ;  the  co-existent 
resistances  come  into   the   consciousness;   and  then 
these  correlations  of  resistance  are  known  as  the  mat- 
ter touching  and  touched,  and  which  essentially  is 
Force,.and  immediately  known  in  conscious  experience. 
The  force  is  not  in  the  matter,  the  force  is  the  matter. 
.  Abstract  the  force,  and  Space  remains ;  the  matter 
and  the  space  differ,  only  as  positions  with  and  posi- 
tions without  co-existing  resistance  differ.     Matter  is 
extended  and  resistant,  and  the  resistance  as  solidity 
is   the   primary  attribute.      Space   is   extended   and 
non-resistant,  and  extension  is  the  primary  attribute. 
When  the  resisting  positions  are  given  successively 
in  an  order  of  sequence  not  reversible,  we  know  the 
occurrences  to  have  a  fixed  series;  and  an  abstrac- 
tion  of  the   successive   resistances   leaves   Time   in 
the  consciousness.     Succession  with  non-resistance  is 
Time.     The   change   of   matter   through    contiguous 
positions  in  successive  moments  is  Motion ;  and  thus 
matter,  space,  and  time  are  conjointly  conditional  for 
motion.     The  primary  knowledge  of  motion  is  in  the 
conscious  change  of  position  of  our  own  muscles,  and 
we  mature  this  knowledge  of  motion  when  there  is 
no  muscular  pressure,  by  at  once  cognizing  the  con- 
currence  of   space    and    time   with  the   movement. 
4 


50  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A   CREATOR. 

Force  is  in  this  the  deepest  element,  change  of  posi- 
tion the  next,  and  the  concurrences  of  space  and  time 
complete  the  complex  cognition.  Matter  and  Motion 
are  concretes ;  Space  and  Time  are  abstracts. 

Relative  Space  and  Time  is  that  which  stands  re- 
lated to  the  matter  in  space  and  time,  or  which  may- 
have  been  abstracted  from  space  and  time ;  and  the 
relative  space  and  time  are,  thus,  the  forms  of  force, 
or  matter.  Absolute  Space  and  Time  is  that  vague 
notion  of  space  and  time,  nascent  in  consciousness, 
as  lying  beyond  all  limits  of  relative  space  and  time. 
The  question  is  asked.  Is  the  Absolute  Space  or  the 
Absolute  Time  a  form  from  some  absolute  exist- 
ence? which  question  is  affirmed  to  be  unanswer- 
able. And  so  also  Relative  Force  is  that  which 
relates  immediately  to  the  experience  of  muscular 
energy.  Absolute  Force  is  that  vague  notion  of 
force,  nascent  in  consciousness,  which  is  beyond  all 
limited  co-resistance  to  muscular  pressure.  The  be- 
ing of  Absolute  Force,  it  is  argued,  is  demanded  from 
the  persistence  of  consciousness  itself  Persistence 
in  consciousness  is  the  criterion  of  reality ;  and  we 
always  rest  satisfied  that  the  thing  is  real,  which, 
in  appropriate  conditions,  persists  in  consciousness. 
Muscular  pressure  is  not  permanently  persistent,  and 
consciousness  itself  persists  only  as  changing  ap- 
pearances take  place  in  consciousness.  The  purely 
simple,  having  no  changes,  could  awaken  no  con- 
sciousness. When,  then,  muscular  pressure  with  its 
co-resistance  ceases,  and  all  relative  force  is  absent, 


FORCE  FROM  MUSCULAR  PRESSURE.  51 

consciousness  itself  must  cease.  But  consciousness 
is  persistent  in  the  absence  of  muscular  pressure 
and  its  co-resistance,  for  which  sake,  from  the  very- 
nature  of  consciousness,  a  persistent  absolute  force 
must  be  present.  This  is  a  priori  postulated  for  the 
persistence  of  consciousness  itselfj  and  it  is  the 
proud  boast  of  this  philosophy,  that  such  postulate 
has  been  found  by  it  to  be  a  logical  necessity  for  the 
continuance  of  consciousness.  This  persistent  Ab- 
solute Force  is  thus  affirmed  to  stand  in  its  truth 
"  deeper  than  de'monstration ;  deeper  than  definite 
cognition ;  deep  as  the  very  nature  of  mind.  The 
sole  truth  which  transcends  experience  by  underly- 
ing it,  is  the  persistence  of  Force."  "To  this  an 
ultimate  analysis  brings  us  down,  and  from  this  a 
rational  synthesis  must  build  up." 

In  this  persistent  absolute  force  we  have  the  in- 
destructibility of  matter,  and  the  necessity  for  con- 
tinuous movement.  The  force  is  matter,  and  can 
be  conceived  as  neither  beginning  nor  ending,  nor 
ceasing  from  evolution ;  and  here  is  the  basis  for  a 
synthesis,  as  experience  may  find  that  the  system 
of  nature  has  been  ordered.  Absolute  force  is  that 
universal  force  in  which  all  changes  and  conversions 
of  forces  occur,  and  in  which  all  is  conserved  and 
held  in  correlation.  Matter  is  convertible  into  other 
matter,  into  spirit,  and  then  again  from  spirit  back 
into  matter;  and  the  universe  of  matter  and  mind  is' 
but  this  universal  correlative  and  persistent  Force. 
A  given  series  may  illustrate  the  perpetual  conver- 


52  KNOWLEDGE  OF  A   CREATOR. 

sions  of  force  everywhere  occurring.  The  moving 
force  which  swings  the  iron-tongue,  and  strikes  the 
ringing  chimes,  is  converted  to  the  vibrations  of  the 
bell ;  thence  into  undulations  of  the  air ;  and  thence 
into  sound  in  the  ear ;  and  here  the  force  is  spiritual- 
ized into  tune  in  the  intellect,  and  then  emotion  in 
the  sensibility,  and  then  to  some  executive  impulse 
in  volition ;  and  now  becomes  converted  into  organic 
movement,  as  irritated  nerve,  and  contracted  muscle, 
and  tension  of  sinews,  and  leverage  of  bones ;  and 
thence  goes  out  again  in  its  endless  round  of  cor- 
relative pressure  through  material  changes.  The 
myriad-sided  movement  is  everywhere  the  pushed 
and  pushing  conversions  and  successions  of  recip- 
rocal and  equivalent  forces ;  and  nothing  new  comes 
iUj  and  nothing  old  drops  out  of  the  one  Absolute 
Force.  That  is  the  ultimate  of  all  analysis,  and  if 
there  be  anywhere,  in  or  out,  an  originating  Per- 
sonality, he  must  to  man  be  unknowable. 

Of  this  entire  speculation,  it  is  important  to  note 
that,  with  no  higher  faculty  than  it  recognizes,  it 
would  never  have  been  attempted,  and  could  never 
have  been  accomplished.  Experience  never  attains 
force ;  and  sense-consciousness  has  neither  interest 
nor  capability  to  determine  what  may  be  the  con- 
ditions of  its  own  persistent  being.  Muscular  exten- 
sion may  push  and  be  pushed  in  experience,  and  in 
every  instance  nervous  irritability  may  have  its  pecu- 
liar sensation;  but  with  no  insight  of  reason  the  pecu- 
liar sensation  is  all  that  is  brought  within  conscious- 


FORCE  FROM  MUSCULAR  PRESSURE.  53 

ness,  and  never  the  force  that  conditioned  the  conscious 
sensation.  An  appetitive  impulse  or  a  rational  im- 
perative may  consciously  have  prompted  the  muscular 
tensions ;  but  the  feeling  we  have  of  these  prompting 
activities  is  but  the  footprint  of  the  spiritual  force, 
which  in  darkness  has  previously  passed  onward. 
The  force  itself  from  appetite  or  obligation  never 
comes  into  consciousness.  The  insight  of  reason  into 
the  facts  of  consciousness  first  gets  the  forces  which 
give  meaning  to  the  facts. 

Even  if  it  were  possible  to  attain  force  from  the 
experience  of  muscular  pressure,  we  have  no  experi- 
ence which  could  give  persistent  absolute  force.  And 
if  experience  teaches  that  consciousness  is  persistent 
only  as  changes  persistently  go  on  within  it,  still  not 
consciousness,  but  a  higher  authority,  must  determine 
for  us  that  these  persistent  changes  were  necessary 
conditions  for  the  consciousness,  and  that  an  absolute 
force  was  necessary  for  the  changes. 

And  then,  again,  even  if  we  had  the  recognition  of 
absolute  force,  and  its  conservatign,  or  persistency, 
and  that  all  particular  forces  are  correlative ;  What  use 
could  we  make  of  it  in  any  philosophy  which  is  to  de- 
t^ermine  the  orderly  development  of  nature  in  expe- 
rience ?  We  cannot  say  whether  the  absolute  force 
is  personal  or  not,  nor  whether  itself  is  the  product 
of  personal  intelligence  and  will ;  all  we  know  is  a 
continual  maze  of  reciprocal  pushings  and  puUings, 
converting  themselves  from  one  form  to  another,  and 
we  can  only  watch  and  classify  the  changes  as  we 


54  KNOWLEDGE  OF   A   CREATOR. 

may  i-n  experience,  with  nothing  to  determine  whence 
they  come  or  whither  they  are  tending.  We  may 
call  the  movement  an  "  evolution,"  and  say  that  expe- 
rience finds  it  to  proceed  from  '^  the  homogeneous  to 
the  heterogeneous  "  in  ever  widening  multiplications, 
but  we  can  cognize  nothing  of  an  involving  that  deter- 
mines the  assumed  evolving.  The  philosophy,  even 
with  this  surreptitiously  assumed  force,  can  only  ex- 
pect the  future  from  the  past,  with  no  insight  of  what 
force  itself  is,  which  may  help  us  to  determine  why 
the  past  has  so  been,  or  how  the  future  must  be. 
The  upshot  of  all  is  still  fact  in  experience,  with  no 
possible  explanation  of  the  fact;  and  no  rational 
mind  can  satisfy  itself  by  it.  Keason  must  in  phe- 
nomenal fact  see  the  force,  and  what  the  force  itself 
is,  and  in  this  it  may  expound  the  mechanics  of  mat- 
ter, the  spontaneities  of  organic  life,  and  find  a  pas- 
sage out  beyond  to  the  supernatural. 

5.  The  Critical  Philosophy.  —  It  is  peculiar  to 
any  mathematical  judgment  that  a  diagram  may  be 
constructed  of  pure  points  or  lines,  which  shall  pre- 
sent the  truth  intended  as  an  immediate  intuition  in 
the  diagram  itself;  and  this  truth  in  one  diagram  will 
be  the  same  truth  as  universal  for  all  diagrams  of 
accordant  constructed  form.  Thus  I  describe  a  line 
from  one  point  to  another,  and  at  once  in  this  I  can 
see  that  the  straight  line  is  "  the  shortest "  line  that 
can  be  drawn  between  those  points.  And  but  this 
one  diagram  is  needed  to  see  from  it  that  the  same 


CRITICAL   PHILOSOPHY.  55 

must  be  true  of  all  straight  lines  universally  that  may- 
be drawn  between  any  two  points.  And  as  in  this, 
so  is  intuition  in  all  mathematical  axioms  and  demon- 
strations. The  new  predicate  to  be  attained,  which 
in  the  case  above  is  "  the  shortest,"  is  seen  from  the 
diagram,  and  only  needs  to  be  put  in  the  form  of  a 
judgment. 

But  in  a  philosophical  judgment  the  case  is  the 
opposite.  I  say,  all  qualities  must  have  substance ; 
all  events  must  have  cause;  and  yet  I  can  make  no 
construction  that  will  express  the  new  predicate  of 
substance  or  of  cause,  and  cannot,  thus,  intuitively 
Bee  the  substance  connecting  the  qualities,  and  the 
cause  connecting  the  events,  and  thereby  judge  that 
they  must  universally  so  connect  the  qualities  and 
the  events.  And  yet,  destitute  of  such  capability  of 
intuition,  we  are  perpetually  affirming,  in  philosophi- 
cal judgments  as  in  mathematical,  the  conviction  of 
universal  truths.  But  when  required  to  justify  our 
philosophical  universal  judgments  we  find  much  diffi- 
culty. We  cannot  put  them  face  to  face  with  us  as 
we  do  in  the  diagrams  of  geometry,  and  hence  we 
cannot  see  how  we  get  our  new  notions  of  substances 
and  causes,  nor  how  we  may  validly  make  universal 
predicates  of  them.  This  attained  conviction  that  no 
consciousness,  pure  or  empirical,  could  bring  sub- 
stance and  cause  to  appear  within  it,  and  consequent- 
ly, by  no  possibility,  could  the  intuition  give  any 
necessary  and  universal  connections  of  qualities  and 
events  in  or  by  the  substances  and  causes,  opened  at 


56  KNOWLEDGE   OF  A   CREATOR. 

once  a  wide  door  for  scepticism  in  both  philosophy 
and  religion,  and  no  efforts  of  empiricism  could  possi- 
bly close  it.  The  Critical  Philosophy,  altogether  the 
most  remarkable  of  our  age,  started  at  just  this  point, 
and  made  it  the  burden  of  inquiry,  "  How  are  syn- 
thetic Judgments  a  priori  possible  ?  " 

The  "  synthetic  Judgment  a  priori  "  was  the  above 
philosophical  Judgment  as  distinct  from  the  mathe- 
matical, and  the  inquiry  involved  the  necessity  for  a 
searching  analysis  of  the  entire  process  of  knowing, 
that  we  might  thereby  attain  to  a  knowledge  of  how 
we  know.  All  such  systems  as  we  have  heretoibre 
been  examining  were  miserably  partial  and  superficial, 
compared  with  the  profound  speculations  of  the  Crit- 
ical Philosophy.  The  mode  of  knowing  must  regulate 
the  objects  known ;  and  in  this  way  was  attained  what 
could  come  in  to  human  consciousness,  and  how  this 
could  be  ordered  in  human  experience.  The  analysis 
took  the  human  intelligence  as  it  is,  and  found  its 
highest  capacities  and  functions. 

The  Sense  was  found  as  capacity  for  receiving 
affections  which  must  from  somewhere  be  given ;  and 
that  primitively  it  has  the  two  forms  of  Space  and 
Time,  as  inclusive  of  its  capacity  for  a  universal  re- 
ceptivity. This  merely  envisaged,  or  put  its  content 
face  to  face  with  the  consciousness,  and  as  thus  fac- 
ulty for  immediately  representing  gave  its  objects  as 
Intuitions. 

These  sense-intuitions  were  then  found  to  be  given 
over  to  the  function  of  Judgment,  that  they  might  be 


CRITICAL    PHILOSOPHY.  57 

ordered  into  a  consistent  experience.  This  function  of 
Judgment  was  found  constituted  with  four  primitive 
forms  for  ordering  the  Intuitions,  distinguished  as 
those  of  Quantity,  Quality,  Relation,  and  Mode ;  and 
these  each  subdivided  into  three  subsidiary  forms, 
making  the  well-known  twelve  Categories  as  the  basis 
of  the  human  Understanding.  The  intuitions  become 
fashioned  and  connected  in  these  forms  as  the  chick 
in  the  egg,  or  the  embryo  in  the  womb,  and  hence 
they  were  named  a  priori  Conceptions,  as  teeming 
with  the  intuitions  given  to  them,  from  whence  the 
ordered  intuitions  issue  in  their  respective  kinds  and 
varieties  of  Judgments.  Intuitions  alone  are  blind ; 
conceptions  alone  are  empty ;  but  the  intuitions  or- 
dered in  the  conceptions  become  intelligible  objects 
in  a  consistently  connected  experience. 

And  now,  it  is  practicable,  in  the  use  of  the  a  priori 
forms  alone,  to  attain  a  universal  scheme  for  all  possi- 
ble human  knowledge.  The  form  of  Time  may  be 
taken  as  generally  inclusive  of  all  intuitions,  and  so 
put  into  the  pure  conceptions  as  to  give  the  pure 
schemes  of  all  possible  Judgments.  This  process  was 
known  as  "  the  Schematism  of  the  Understanding." 

First,  the  moments  of  time  taken  as  continuous 
units  and  given  to  the  category  of  Quantity,  will 
come  out  in  general  schemes  of  its  three  varieties  of 
Judgments.  The  moments  connected  in  a  series  will 
give  the  scheme  for  Unity  ;  the  unarrested  flow  of 
the  series  will  give  the  scheme  for  Plurality ;  and  the 
exclusion  of  all   limits   to   the  series  will  give  the 


58  KNOWLEDGE    OF   A    CREATOR.   ' 

scheme  for  absolute  Totality.  These  moments,  again, 
put  within  the  category  of  Quality,  will  give  the 
schemes  for  all  its  varieties  of  Judgments.  The  mo- 
ments as  content  in  the  conception  will  give  the 
scheme  for  Eeality ;  as  content  withheld  from  the.  cat- 
egory, the  scheme  for  Negation;  and  as  zero,  where 
content  meets  a  void  of  content,  the  scheme  for  Lim- 
itation. But  more  important  for  the  connections  in 
experience  is  the  giving  of  time  to  the  category  of 
Relation.  The  perduring  time  will  give  scheme  for 
Substantiality  ;  the  successive  time  for  Causality  ;  and 
coetaneous  time  the  scheme  for  Reciprocity.  In  this 
way  may  be  an  d  priori  determination  of  all  possible 
kinds  and  varieties  of  Judgments  the  human  intelli- 
gence can  have  in  experience,  for  the  actual  forms 
must  be  ordered  according  to  these  a  priori  schemes. 
It  is,  however,  to  be  carefully  noted  that  this  is  all 
from  an  analysis  of  empirical  fact,  and  its  a  priori 
knowledge  of  experience  is  still  a  posteriori  to  the 
Intelligence  that  is  to  have  the  experience.  The 
mind  is  a  fact  already  made,  and  such  a  mind  may  so 
know ;  but  some  other  order  of  mind  may  be  consti- 
tuted to  know  objects  differently,  perhaps  directly 
contradictorily.  The  Critic  of  pure  Reason  has  still 
no  Absolute  Reason  for  determining  an  absolutely 
and  universally  valid  knowledge.  The  only  specula- 
tive Reason  recognized  is  a  regulative  Faculty,  di- 
recting the  search  for  the  Absolute ;  but  inasmuch  as 
no  possible  form  of  the  Judgment  can  furnish  a  con- 
tent to  its  empty  Ideals,  so  the  critical  Reason  must 


CRITICAL   PHILOSOPHY.  59 

ever  remain  barren  of  all  cognition  of  the  Absolute. 
Man  may  know  all  of  sense-appearance,  and  in  the 
understanding  may  order  this  in  an  experience  which 
he  knows  as  nature,  but  he  can  never  know  the  super- 
natural. 

And  it  is  also  to  be  noted,  that  some  outer  "  thing 
in  itself"  must  be  assumed  to  give  affection  and  con- 
tent to  the  sense-receptivity,  or  the  sense  can  give 
nothing  to  the  understanding  that  it  may  connect  in 
the  judgments  of  experience.  This  "  thing  in  itself" 
was  to  the  last  insisted  upon  as  necessary  to  be  as- 
sumed in  thought,  though  not  it,  and  only  the  im- 
pressions from  it,  could  be  brought  within  conscious- 
ness. As  thought  only  it  was  known  as  noumenon, 
and  its  imparted  representative  was  phenomenon; 
the  latter  was  the  object  as  known,  the  former  could 
never  become  object.  ._    . 

A  Second  Stage  of  the  Critical  Philosophy,  rejecting 
the  noumenon,  or  "  thing  in  itself,"  as  confessedly 
beyond  all  consciousness,  held  it  necessary  to  come 
to  the  knowledge  of  what  knowing  is,  by  a  careful 
analysis  of  the  knowing-process  alone.  It  supposed 
itself  to  be  truly  the  philosophy  of  the  first  stage 
more  carefully  analyzed,  inasmuch  as  that  had  taught 
that  the  one  "  I  think  "  must  accompany  every  repre- 
sentation in  consciousness,  in  order  to  preserve  the 
unity  of  consciousness ;  but  when  the  Philosopher 
of  the  first  stage  somewhat  indignantly  and  very 
emphatically   discarded    this    interpretation,   and    in- 


60  KNOWLEDGE   OF    A   CREATOR. 

sisted  on  retaining  the  noumenon,  the  Philosopher 
of  the  second  stage  intrepidly  took  his  own  way, 
only  insisting  that  it  was  plainly  the  way  the  first 
should  have  taken. 

Its  explanation,  in  a  very  general  form,  is  as  follows : 
The  multitude  have  their  sense-representations,  and 
put  them  in  a  connected  experience,  but  they  do  not 
reflect  on  what  they  have  done,  and  hence  have  no 
clear  knowledge  of  their  process  of  knowing.  The 
speculative  philosopher  does  not  rest  in  this  conscious- 
ness of  common  experience,  but  by  careful  reflection 
upon  it  brings  it  to  a  new  and  higher  conscious- 
ness, in  which  he  comes  to  know  how  he  has  the 
common  conscious  experience.  A  record  of  what  is 
attained  in  this  philosophic  consciousness  is  "  the 
Science  of  Knowledge." 

The  common  experience  is  under  necessity,  for  the 
representations  come  from  somewhere  into  the  con- 
sciousness without  being  ordered  by  it;  but  the  re- 
flection of  the  philosopher  is  wholly  free,  for  he  turns 
back  upon  his  common  experience  from  his  own  motion 
altogether,  and  voluntarily  controls  his  own  thinking. 
On  going  up  to  the  dawning  of  any  of  his  representa- 
tions in  consciousness,  he  finds  them  to  have  been 
dependent  on  conditions  which  do  not  come  within 
consciousness,  and  reflection  is  cut  short,  for  he  finds 
nothing  further  to  turn  back  upon.  But  where  re- 
flection can  know  nothing,  philosophic  contemplation 
of  the  rising  representations  in  consciousness  can 
cognize  in  them  their  determining  conditions.     The 


CRITICAL   PHILOSOPHY.  61 

knowing  is  beyond  proof;  back  of  all  data  in  con- 
sciousness, even  below  consciousness  itself;  and  yet  a 
knowing  absolutely  sure  and  valid  on  which  all  con- 
scious perceiving  and  logical  proving  must  them- 
selves rest  for  their  validity,  and  which  will  subse- 
quently manifest  itself  as  the  affirmation  of  Absolute 
Reason. 

We  must  not  lose  sight,  that  the  end  of  the  Critical 
Philosophy  is  the  attainment  of  a  complete  theory  of 
knowledge ;  and  that  as  knowing  is  an  activity,  the 
philosophy  takes  the  subjective  stand-point,  and  seeks 
to  determine  the  method  of  activity  in  the  subject 
knowing.  There  may  or  may  not  be  outer  things; 
that  is  here  no  matter  in  question ;  if  there  are,  and 
they  are  known,  they  must  be  known  by  the  activity 
of  the  subject  knowing ;  and  whether  outer  things 
give  their  representation,  or  some  other  agent  put 
them  within  the  subject,  it  is  still  all  the.  same  that 
the  active  subject  alone  can  know  them.  When, 
then,  the  philosopher  reflects  on  some  conscious  expe- 
rience, he  finds  intuitions  there  present  in  conscious- 
ness, and  which  come  and  stay  there  without  his 
ordering,  and  yet  they  could  not  appear  to  him  with- 
out his  activity.  A  dead  inactive  consciousness  could 
not  envisage,  and  thus  the  activity  must  have  been  in 
order  to  the  envisaging ;  and  this  too  beneath  the  con- 
sciousness, for  the  appearance  is  the  last  which  any  re- 
flection can  go  back  to  in  the  consciousness.  Condi- 
tional for  appearance  in  consciousness,  was  some  pre- 
vious agency  envisaging  it.     That  activity  must  have 


62  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A    CREATOR. 

its  law,  or  method  of  envisagement,  already  in  and  with 
it,  or  no  ordered  experience  could  be  in  conscious- 
ness; and  thus  conditional  for  conscious  experience, 
must  there  be  an  activity  with  its  possessed  method 
or  law.  Rational  contemplation  cognizes  that,  on  the 
necessary  principle  of  "  the  sufficient  reason,"  a  cog- 
nizing activity  and  its  possessed  law  must  already  be. 
This  is  solely  activity ;  living  movement ;  having  per- 
manent essence  and  identity  in  its  law  of  working, 
with  no  other  substantiality  ;  and  this  is  actual  and 
real,  and  the  only  reality  which  the  speculative  con- 
templation can  recognize.  This  is  the  true  self,  or 
ego,  not  yet  conscious  of  its  own  being.  The  phi- 
losopher has  cognition  of  it  in  contemplation,  but  it 
has  not  yet  come  to  itself.  The  philosophic  conscious- 
ness states  it  as  already  a  doing;  a  deed-act,  since 
its  very  essence  is  methodical  activity ;  and  in  it  we 
have  the  ego  equal  to  self;  ego  =  ego. 

The  ego's  method  of  activity  is  self-limitation ;  de- 
fining its  own  activity,  and  thus  terminating  itself 
in  that  which  is  not-self;  the  ego  oppositing  to  itself 
a  non-ego,  since  no  intelligence  can  be  without  dis- 
tinction,, or  limiting  its  activity  in  that  which  is 
some  other.  And  in  this  the  philosophic  contem- 
plation posits  a  non-ego  not  =  ego. 

The  waking  consciousness  has  in  this  a  vague 
recognition  of  self  and  something  other;  and  one 
more  step  completes  the  process.  The  confusion 
now  is,  that  two  opposites,  ego  and  non-ego,  strive 
for  admission,  and  neither  can  be  in  consciousness 


CRITICAL   PHILOSOPHY.  63 

without  the  other  ;  and  they  are  opposites,  and  it  must 
needs  be,  as  would  seem,  that  one  exclude  the  other. 
The  necessary  method  of  the  activity  is  here  coun- 
ter-movement from  each  side,  and  then  the  ego  limits 
the  non-ego,  and  the  oscillation  or  return  movement 
gives  the  non-ego  limiting  the  ego.  They  are  both 
now  in  full  consciousness,  discriminated  each  from 
each.  The  ego  has  found  itself  distinct  from  all  that 
is  not  itself,  and  henceforth  its  activity  is  clear  con- 
scious agency. 

When,  in  the  full  consciousness,  the  ego  is  taken 
as  limiting  itself  in  the  non-ego,  the  occasion  is 
given  for  the  science  of  knowledge  in  its  Theoretic 
Part.  The  philosopher  sees  that  ail  the  work  is  by 
the  one  real  activity,  and  that  the  non-ego  is  but  a 
self-separation  or  reduplication  of  the  ego,  and  the 
product  of  its  essential  method  in  self-limitation. 
The  common  unreflecting  consciousness  takes  the 
ego  as  subject,  and  the  non-ego  as  object,  and  holds 
them  to  be  distinct  in  being,  and  the  latter  as  external 
to  the  former.  The  philosopher  thus,  knowing  the 
truth  of  the  higher  consciousness  and  the  illusion 
of  the  lower  common  consciousness,  can  expound 
them  both,  and  has  in  his  contemplative  position  full 
opportunity  to  give  a  record  of  the  entire  process 
of  Theoretic  Knowledge. 

When,  on  the  other  hand,  the  ego  is  taken  as  lim- 
iting the  non-ego  by  itself,  the  occasion  is  given  for 
the  science  of  knowledge  in  its  Practical  Part.  The 
philosopher  sees  that  in  the  being  of  the  living  activi- 


64  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A   CREATOR. 

ty  with  its  essential  law,  there  must  be  a  prompting 
as  a  claim,  or  self-behest,  to  work  out  its  whole 
method ;  and  that  what  it  thus  should  do,  it  can  and 
spontaneously  will  do ;  and  thus  that,  which  poten- 
tially is  in  the  ego,  will  become  actually  a  reality 
from  the  ego ;  and  nature,  and  society,  and  state 
regulations  must  follow  in  their  development.  But 
still,  with  all  the  practical  reality,  it  is  a  real  within, 
and  not  external  to.  the  ego ;  and  illusive  as  all  is  to 
the  common  consciousness,  the  philosopher  cognizes 
the  whole  in  its  truth,  that  the  knowing  can  have 
nothing  outside  of  its  own  activity. 

The  reality  of  the  world  came  from  fulfilling,  that 
is,  realizing  the  essential  law  in  the  ego,  and  is  thus 
the  product  and  creation  from  this  essential  moral 
order;  and  this  eternal  Moral  Order  is  the  eternal 
God ;  creator,  and  governor  of  universal  experience. 
There  is  nothing  which  does  not  'Mive,  and  move, 
and  have  its  being  ^'  in  this  essential,  eternal  Moral 
Order.  We  can  apprehend  none  other,  be  compre- 
hended by  none  other,  and  truly  need  none  other 
God. 

A  necessary  inquiry  was  left  here  unanswered. 
The  philosopher  stands  outside  the  common  conscious- 
ness, and  contemplates  it  as  a  panorama  before  him. 
Is  the  philosopher  Absolute  Ego  ?  May  there  be 
many  Absolutes  ?  or  is  there  an  absolute  ego  in- 
clusive of  every  ego  and  non-ego  ? 

A  very  ingenious  and  elaborate  speculation  was 
here  introduced,  and  held  the  Absolute  to  be  essential 


CRITICAL    PHILOSOPHY.  65 

activity  in  an  indifference-point  between  subject  and 
object,  and  with  the  All  potentially  in  itself  in  that 
point.  As  a  living  energy,  the  Absolute  discedes  from 
the  point,  projecting  itself  each  way,  and  becoming 
on  one  hand  subject  and  on  the  other  object ;  the 
subject  and  object  thus  standing  to  each  other  in  con- 
sciousness as  the  two  opposite  poles  of  the  one  living 
energy  —  they  identical  in  the  Absolute,  and  the  Ab- 
solute not  in  consciousness;  but  when  projected  as 
opposites,  they  were  made  distinct  and  definite  in  the 
consciousness,  while  the  Absolute  still  remained  be- 
neath consciousness,  and  could  be  recognized  only  in 
an  "  Intellectual  Intuition."  The  law  or  method  of 
activity  is  essentially  intelligent,  the  Absolute  having 
the  Universal  in  its  grasp  originally,  then  disceding 
and  distinguishing  into  subject  and  object,  then  har.- 
monizing  or  identifying  the  distinctions  as  subject 
and  predicate  in  a  judgment.  There  is  thus  the  po- 
tential All  in  the  Absolute,  and  by  the  perpetual  sys- 
tem of  thesis,  antithesis,  and  synthesis,  this  is  succes- 
sively developed  into  the  subjective  and  the  objective, 
which  are  but  two  modes  of  view  from  opposite  sides 
of  one  and  the  same  life-energy,  and  of  which  there 
can  be  no  more  than  two  fundamental  sciences,  viz. : 
The  Philosophy  of  Mind,  in  the  self-consciousness  of 
the  subject ;  and  the  Philosophy  of  Nature,  in  the  life 
and  movement  of  the  objective  world. 

But  with  all  the  enthusiasm  which  the  brilliancy  of 
this  ^'  Identity  system  "  kindled  in  its  many  disciples 
at  its   first  announcement,  it   soon  fell   outside   the 
5 


66  KNOWLEDGE  OF  A   CREATOR. 

onward  flow  of  speculative  thinking,  and  fixes  no  dis- 
tinct stage  for  itself  in  the  continuous  movement  of 
the  Critical  Philosophy.  The  march  went  round  it, 
and  did  not  take  this  up  into  it.  If  the  Absolute  be 
one,  how  differentiate  into  the  relative  ?  If  it  could 
eflPect  this,  it  must  be  at  the  expense  of  itself,  becom- 
ing a  neutrum ;  and  even  if  held  to  be  self-active,  in 
distinction  from  an  Absolute  Substance,  what  advan- 
tage could  come  from  this,  since  the  Activity  must  be 
self-destructive?  The  piquant  presentations  of  these 
weak  points  effectually  excluded  it,  as  a  starting- 
point  for  attaining  any  advanced  position.  Such  an 
Absolute,  it  was  said,  could  give  no  reason  for  itself, 
but  "  came  as  if  shot  from  a  pistol."  It  was  merely 
an  occasion  for  identifying  subject  and  object,  and  so 
/'only  as  the  night,  in  which  every  cow  looks  black.'' 
The  same  self-opposites  perpetually  returned  to  iden- 
tity, "  as  if  a  painter  took  only  opposite  red  and  green 
to  blend  into  all  colors."  The  Author  himself  fre- 
quently modiBed  his  starting-point,  and  finally  assumed 
for  his  Absolute  a  free  personal  Will. 

A  third  Stage,  however,  was  soon  attained  by  a 
speculation  from  a  more  profound  principle,  and  car- 
ried to  a  more  comprehensive  result.  So  far  as  pure 
thinking  is  concerned,  this  last  speculation  leaves 
little  else  to  be  done,  and  little  also  of  itself  that 
needs  to  be  done  over.  Its  method  of  graded  move- 
ment in  the  subjective  ego  is  much  after  the  manner 
of  the  second  stage,  and  yet  the  movement  begins 


CRITICAL    PHILOSOPHY.  67 

and  concludes  quite  diiferently  from  the  second  or 
the  first  stage.  It  does  not  begin  with  a  finite  ego  in 
common  consciousness  or  philosophic  contemplation, 
but  the  movement  from  the  start  is  of  the  Absolute 
itself."  A  preliminary  analysis  of  consciousness  at- 
tains an  absolute  thought-process,  from  which,  as 
causa  sioi,  the  dialectic  may  begin  thought  and  con- 
summate all  thinking.  The  process,  moreover,  is  of 
a  logical  instead  of  a  moral  order ;  the  logic  develop- 
ing into  ethic  by  the  inward  interest  of  systematic 
completeness,  and  not  the  pressure  of  duty.  And 
still  another  point  of  difference  obtains:  Instead  of 
the  philosopher  contemplating  the  process  from  the 
outside,  and  thus  knowing  objectively  the  subject 
knowing,  it  puts  the  organ  within  the  process,  and 
sees  the  entire  consciousness  in  its  own  transparency. 
A  very  condensed  statement  of  the  whole  will  here 
be  given. 

The  preliminary  analysis  above  mentioned,  or  rath- 
er a  traverse  of  the  whole  movement  in  conscious- 
ness, is  known  as  the  Phenomenology  of  the  Spirit. 
It  takes  the  immediate  sense-appearance,  and  in  close 
scrutiny  finds  perpetually  perplexing  contradictions 
arising,  the  explanation  of  which  carries  the  process 
after  truth  to  successively  higher  and  more  comprehen- 
sive attainments.  Every  new  statement  of  truth  is 
seen,  when  examined,  to  have  its  remaining  diflSculties 
requiring  fuller  elucidation.  An  outline  of  this  chase 
of  truth  through  consciousness  is  as  follows :  — 

When  we  attentively  examine  sense-appearances, 


68  KNOWLEDGE   OF  A   CREATOR. 

seeking  to  know  just  what  truly  is  and  abides  in  the 
consciousness,  we  find  all  else  passing  away  but  a 
permanently  abiding  "  this  "  in  the  appearances  ;  and 
a  little  further  care  finds  that  with  a  permanent  "  this  " 
there  is  also  an  abiding  ''  there  "  or  a  "  now."  Thus 
the  immediate  appearance  may  be  a  man,  and  yet 
anon  the  man  has  passed  out,  and  a  house,  and 
then  a  tree,  &c.,  appears  in  consciousness ;  and  yet  of 
all  there  was  a  permanent  "this  here,"  as  this  here 
man,  this  here  house,  &c.  And  so,  again,  the  imme- 
diate may  be  night  and  pass  away,  and  the  immediate  is 
then  morning,  then  noon,  <fec.  And  yet  in  all  the  passing 
there  has  been  a  perpetual  "  this  now  "  night,  "  this 
not^  "  morning,  &c.,  standing  in  consciousness.  The 
"  this  here  "  or  "  this  7iow  "  has  been  the  true  which 
the  consciousness  has  kept  while  the  appearances 
came  and  passed  away.  And  yet  the  "  this,"  here  or 
now,  is  not  the  essentially  true,  for  a  further  careful 
scrutiny  observes  that  there  is  no  "  this  "  except  as  / 
behold  it.  The  "  this ''  means  nothing  but  as  in  my 
consciousness,  and  the  "/"  is  the  essentially  true  for 
the  immediate  "  this." 

And  still  again,  when  we  closely  observe  this  /,  we 
find  it  continuall}^  passing  from  appearance  to  appear- 
ance, and  standing  under  them  as  the  mediate  in  con- 
sciousness, so  that  the  appearances  are  no  longer 
immediate,  but  are  nothing  except  through  the  me- 
dium of  the  7.  The  true,  then,  is  not  an  immediate 
beholding,  but  a  perceiving,  or  taking  through  a  me- 
dium.    We  have  thus,  in  chase  of  the  true,  in  this 


^  OF  THE  ''A 

UNIVERSITY 

CRITICAL  PHILOSOPHT.     ^^^ilprfft ^^^' 

third  scrntiny,  gone  quite  over  from  immediate  con- 
sciousness into  another  sphere,  which  gives  the  true 
reflected  in  a  medium,  and  have  thus  passed  quite 
through  the  First  Phase  of  knowing,  which  is  named 
that  of  Common  Consciousness. 

In  passing  over  from  Common  Consciousness  to  re- 
flected knowledge  of  the  understanding,  we  stand  at 
once  in  this  position :  knowing  the  ego  as  under  all 
the  appearances,  and  knowing  them  as  only  reflections 
from  the  ego,  and  so  in  the  Judgment  they  are  quali- 
ties in  the  substance  or  eff'ects  in  the  cause.  They 
are  the  reflection,  or  other  side,  of  the  ego  itself,  and 
could  not  be  in  consciousness  but  for  the  ego,  and  so  the 
ego  could  not  be  in  consciousness  except  for  them. 
And  this  is  true  both  for  what  the  common  conscious- 
ness may  deem  outer  or  inner  experiences,  material 
qualities  or  mental  exercises ;  for  we  now  understand 
them  to  be  alike  reflections  from  the  one  ego.  The 
ego  is  continually  turning  the  reflection  from  side  to 
side,  for  it  cannot  keep  either  in  consciousness  without 
the  other,  and  it  cannot  have  both  at  once  as  the  true. 
This  struggling,  see-saw  mode  of  knowing  wants  a 
more  stable  standing,  and  the  ego  is  forced  to  find  a 
point  in  which  it  may  be  conscious  of  itself  without 
dependence  upon  its  representations.  Watching  care- 
fully the  reflections  from  the  two  sides  of  itself,  the 
ego  notes  the  subjective  to  be  the  active  force  which 
holds  all  the  representations,  and  the  true  essential 
Activity,  while  nature  is  but  its  reflected  cdterum;  and 
herein  the  ego  knows  itself  to  be  lord  of  nature. 


70  KNOWLEDGE    OF  A   CREATOR. 

And  yet  this  control  of  nature  is  not  satisfying,  for 
there  is  ever  a  colliding  with  and  ^conditioning  by 
nature,  and  not  complete  freedom  from  the  necessities 
and  obtrusive  interferences  of  nature.  The  logical  in- 
terest- prompts  the  process  onward  to  the  point  of  full 
liberty.  This  cannot  be  in  the  communings  of  the  ego 
with  nature,  and  only  of  like  with  like.     Historically, 

•  the  ego  enters  into  communion  with  other  egos,  and 
all  come  thus  to  recognize  both  themselves  and  each 
other.  Each  knows  his  own  freedom  and  acknowl- 
edges the  freedom  of  others,  and  thus  the  ego  comes  to 
complete  self-recognition,  and  passes  wholly  through  the 
Second  Phase  of  knowing,  termed  Self-Consciousness. 

The  ego  now  knows  itself  in  communion  with  other 
egos,  and  all  the  sympathies  of  social  life  come 
witliin  consciousness.  Still  the  satisfactorily  true  is 
not  fully  reached,  and  the  interest  of  logical  com- 
pleteness persists  in  the  traverse.  Ego  opposes  ego, 
and  the  freedom  of  one  encroaches  on  the  freedom  of 
all,  and  the  true  point  of  social  equilibrium  and  stable 
peace  is  in  the  harmonizing  individual  will  to  the  uni- 
versal, and  the  one  will  in  all  is  the  only  true  for  the 

*  consciousness.  The  atomic  egos  now  dwell  in  the 
universal,  and  the  Absolute  Ego  has  tlie  knowledge 
and  consenting  purpose  of  all  wills  in  his.  All  na- 
ture and  all  humanity  are  now  one  in  the  Absolute. 
He  knows  himself  as  having  all  thinking  and  all 
thought  in  consciousness,  and  gazes  steadily  and 
eternally  on  pure  Truth.  This  is  the  Third  Phase  of 
knowing,  termed  the  Universal  Reason. 


CRITICAL  PHILOSOPHY.  .71 

The  Phenomenology  thus  terminates  in  a  causa  sui, 
which  in  consciousness  is  also  causa  omnium. 

Now,  he  who  has  traversed  the  knowing-process  of 
the  Phenomenology,  comprehends  what  he  has  done, 
and  has  an  interest  in  taking  the  complete  Idea  at- 
tained, and  seeing  percur  from  the  start  a  priori, 
the  whole  process  he  has  been  traversing  a  posteriori. 
He  knows  that  every  enterprising  mind  must  also 
be  interested  in  such  a  priori  process  of  knowledge. 
He  can  now  set  the  whole  before  all  such  earnest 
thinkers,  and  make  the  Idea  he  has  gained  dialectical- 
ly  work  out  for  them  all  subjective  and  all  objective 
knowledge,  and  finally  all  self-knowledge,  and  thereby 
present  a  complete  and  pure  Science  of  Logic.  He 
may  then  take  the  logical  objective  and  thoroughly 
dissolve  it  into  its  elements,  and  therein  present  a 
pure  Science  of  Nature.  And  then,  again,  he  can 
take  the  pure  Intelligence  from  Nature,  and  give  it  in 
all  its  stages  from  militant  to  triumphant,  and  thence 
on  to  absolutely  regnant  and  sole  originaut  of  all 
thinking  and  knowing,  and  therein  a  pure  Science  of 
Mind  will  be  presented.  And  of  this  it  is  which  the 
Third  Stage  of  the  Critical  Philosophy  has  essayed 
the  accomplishment. 

But  while  the  speculatist  who  comprehends  the 
Phenomenology  knows  that  the  possibility  of  all  this 
is  in  the  Idea,  his  logical  interest  induces  to  the  put- 
ting aside  the  results  of  previous  study,  and  permitr 
ting  the  Idea  to  work  out  its  own  fulness  after  its 
method,  while  he  absorbs  himself  in  the  movement,  and, 


72  KNOWLEDGE  OF  A   CREATOR. 

with  no  forecasting,  sees  this  rational  Idea  in  pro- 
gressive development.  The  record  of  such  consum- 
mated development  will  be  the  Science  of  Logic. 

This  Idea,  attained  in  the  Phenomenology,  we  here 
take  and  put  ourselves  in  it,  even  make  our  mind 
identical  with  it,  and  become  clearly  conscious  of 
what  it  does.  We  before  called  it  coMsa  sul  et  om- 
nium, hut  only  for  the  sake  of  a  statement;  while, 
in  fact,  any  statement  in  words  must  be  a  misstate- 
ment, for  the  Idea  is  comprehensive  of  all  substance, 
cause,  and  universal  thought,  as  their  independent 
source.  It  is  in  itself  the  pure  activity  knowing, 
and  in  which  process  we  are  to  see  how  all  knowing 
is  and  must  be ;  and  we  can  best  describe  it  as  the 
knowing  activity  in  its  Idea.  As  ideal  kno^ving,  it 
is  pure  thought-agency  originating  thought,  while 
thought  yet  is  not. 

The  Idea  has  Being  in  its  most  void  abstraction. 
It  is,  and  that  is  all  which  can  be  said  of  it ;  and  this 
is  as  if  we  had  said  it  is  nought ;  for  it  has  no  pred- 
icate we  can  connect  in  a  judgment  with  it.  We 
see  that  it  and  nought  are  the  same ;  and  yet  in  that 
seeing  w^e  see  the  Idea  already  in  action,  and  our 
mind  the  seeing  organ  within  it,  and  what  we  have 
to  do  is  just  to  note  what  comes  of  the  movement.  We 
learned  its  method  in  the  Phenomenology.  It  is,  that 
it  may  become  universal  knower,  and  is  thus  neces- 
sarily a  dialectic  in  attaining  the  end  of  its  activity. 
All  Afl&rraation  is  also  Negation ;  and  the  negating  of 
the  negation  is  a  more  full  E,eafl5rmation ;  and  such  is 


CRITICAL  PHILOSOPHY.  73 

the  rhj-tlimical  movement  through  the  whole  process. 
With  the  simple  affirmation  there  is  also  a  negation 
which  distinguishes,  and  then  the  negation  is  itself 
nullified,  and  the  distinction  thereby  brought  to  a 
higher  unity.  The  movement  is  therefore  in  a  per- 
petual tripartite  gradation  of  thesis,  antithesis,  and 
synthesis ;  threefold  in  each  step,  three  steps  to  each 
state,  and  three  states  to  each  successive  stage ;  and 
then  the  two  last  stages  are  taken  separately  from 
the  logical  cycle,  and  made  to  round  themselves  in 
the  consummated  sphere  of  Absolute  Knowledge. 
The  content  posited  with  each  step  is  carried  virtual- 
ly along  through  all  the  succeeding,  —  "suppressed," 
i.  e.,  pressed  under  and  kept  within  the  following 
gradations,  —  and  thus  the  knowledge  augments  with 
each  removal.  But  we  again  caution  not  to  forecast, 
and  only  note  as  we  move;  we  are  here  to  forget 
everything,  and  begin  knowing. 

The  Science  op  Logic. 

Our  intellectual  organ  is  in  the  Idea,  and  yet  knows 
nothing  of  it;  but  a  glance  first  gives  its  pure  being: 
we  cannot  say  it  is  this  or  that,  for  it  is  utterly 
predicateless,  and  the  same  as  nought.  We  can  say 
nought  is,  as  well  as  we  can  say  pure  being  is;  and 
in  saying  either  we  say  just  as  much  and  as  little 
for  one  as  the  other.  There  is  no  predicate  to  finish 
a  judgment  for  either.  But  the  Idea  is  already  mov- 
ing and  merely  determining  without  stating,  and  as 
yet  the  action  is  simple  determination. 


74  knowledge  of  a  creator. 

Being. 

The  determining  movement  passes  into  a  separat- 
ing, or  to  and  from,  movement  between  being  and 
nought,  and  the  synthesis  in  the  oscillation  is  a  limita- 
tion, in  -which  there  is  a  coming  combination  of  the 
two  that  is  simply  becoming,  and  thus  an  entering  into 
the  state  of — 

1.  Quality.  —  The  Unity  in  the  becoming  sepa- 
rates itself,  in  the  swing  of  being  and  nought  over 
their  mutual  limitation  respectively,  and  there  is  in- 
terpenetration,  which,  like  the  blending  of  pure  light 
and  abstract  darkness  that  alone  are  invisible,  has 
become  a  curdled  something  for  incipient  predication, 
and  we  can  say  of  it,  "  this  here,"  or  "  this  now,"  and 
is  a  first  step  in  qualifying,  as  simply  existence. 

The  Analj^tic  movement,  again,  distinguishes  the 
elements  in  existence,  as  "  being  "  and  its  "  alterum ;  " 
and  their  synthesis  is  the  negation  of  their  limit,  or 
finitude,  between  them,  and  affirming  infinitude; 
which  unity  in  a  third  somewhat  is  existence  which 
has  inner  but  not  outer  determination,  and  is  a  second 
step  in  knowing,  as  Being/or-se?/". 

The  analysis  of  being-for-self  is  its  inward  unity 
annulled  into  the  elements  of  unit  and  void,  for  the 
negating  movement,  in  annulling  inward  limitation, 
eveiywhere  distinguishes  and  expels  the  elementary 
elements,  while  the  reaffirming  movement  every- 
where   condenses   and   attracts    them,   and   the   one 


CRITICAL    PHILOSOPHY.  75 

being-for-self  has  its  inner  quality  sundered  into 
many,  and  thus  quality  becomes  quantitative,  and  in 
this  third  step  goes  completely  over  into  another 
state  which  is  — 

2.  Quantity.  —  Thus  far  we  have  taken  the  tripar- 
tite movement  seriatim  in  the  steps,  and  through  the 
three  steps  to  the  new  state ;  but  as  we  are  not  here 
teaching,  and  only  outlining  the  speculation,  we  may 
henceforward  particularize  less,  and  generalize  in  a 
more  rapid  movement. 

The  Idea  has  now  being  no  longer  pure,  nor  mere- 
ly qualified,  but  holding  in  itself  finitude  and  infini- 
tude, repulsion  and  attraction,  and  thus  competent 
both  for  self-diremption  and  self-identification,  the 
synthesis  of  which  is  Quantity  ;  the  many  in  the  one. 
The  one  movement  through  the  many  is  continuity ; 
and  the  many  checking-in  the  one  movement  is  dis- 
cretion ;  and  tlie  synthesis  of  the  continuous  and  dis- 
crete is  Quantity  in  general. 

Quantity  in  general  with  a  limit  is  quantum ;  and 
the  quantity  in  general  may  have  infinite  quanta, 
and  the  multipHcity  of  quanta  is  number.  A  quan- 
tum outwardly  determined  is  extensive :  and  innerly 
determined  is  intensive ;  and  the  intensive  quanta 
of  an  extensive  quantum  numbered  is  degree.  The 
intensive  degree  qualifies  the  quantity,  —  as  the  de- 
gree of  cold  qualifies  ice,  or  the  degree  of  heat  quali- 
fies steam  —  and  such  quahfied  quantity  is  the  Idea 
in  a  higher  state  as  — 


76  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A   CREATOR. 

3.  Measore.  —  The  relation  of  an  externally  deter- 
mined quantum  to  its  internal  degree  is  Measure ;  and 
is  thus  the  relation  of  the  same  to  itself  on  its  differ- 
ent sides,  or  of  its  inner  self  as  referred  to  its  outer 
self  The  measuring  movement  may  pass  on  beyond 
its  limit,  and  be  measureless  —  or  it  may  withdraw 
indefinitely  within  the  limit,  abolishing  its  degrees  — 
and  in  either  case  it  loses  itself;  but  the  specific 
ratio  of  inner  degree  to  extensive  quantum  measures 
itself.  Its  determined  inner  refers  itself  back  to  its 
outer,  and  thoroughly  and  exactly  qualifies  the  quan- 
tity and  specifies  the  thing.  Quality  and  quantit}^  be- 
come identical  in  the  thing,  and  being  is  suppressed 
beneath  its  own  reflection.  There  is  no  more  imme- 
diate apprehension,  but  mediate  reflection ;  and  the 
movement  passes  from  the  stage  of  pure  being  as 
perceived,  to  reflected  being  in  the  judgment,  and  we 
now  have  Being  in  the  higher  logical  stage  as  — 

Essence. 

In  this  stage,  the  Idea  has  taken  all  determinable- 
ness  of  being  in  unity  within  the  Idea ;  and  the  move- 
ment is  necessarily  henceforth  reflective,  and  in 
perpetual  change  from  side  to  side.  Viewed  psycho- 
logically, it  is  the  working  of  the  understanding  with 
sense-apprehensions. 

As  mere  Essence,  it  is  source  for  reflecting ;  and 
in  which  reflecting  and  reflected  are  identical.  The 
Essence  as  one  must  yet  exist  as  twofold.  The  An- 
tithesis may  be  of  many  varieties,  and  yet  if  one  side 


CRITICAL   PHILOSOPHY.  77 

of  the  aDtithesis  be,  the  other  must  also  be.  They 
are  such  as  cause  and  effect;  substance  and  acci- 
dence ;  matter  and  form ;  positive  and  negative,  &c. 
The  common  understanding  holds  them  as  different 
existences,  and  thereby  logically  annihilates  all  ex- 
istence in  contradictions  and  absurdities.  They  can 
only  be  as  complementary  in  the  same  essence  ;  and 
hence  the  simple  essence,  as  source  for  reflection,  is 
the  potential  for  all  existence. 

But  the  possible  reflecting  is  also  the  necessary 
reflecting ;  for  the  essence  can  be  only  in  the  reflec- 
tion. The  cause  is  not,  except  as  going  into  eff^ect ; 
the  substance  is  not,  except  in  its  accidence,  <fec. 
This  necessity  of  reflecting  is  Force  and  its  Manifes- 
tation;  the  cause  appears  in  its  effect ;  and  the  Idea 
moves  the  essential  into  its  further  state  as  the  phe- 
nomenal. 

But  in  reflection  essence  and  appearance  are  recip- 
rocal. The  .effect  must  be  as  its  cause,  and  the 
accidence  as  the  substance ;  and  thus  both  must  be 
in  the  hand  of  an  Actual  which  grasps  both  in  one; 
and  in  this  the  Idea  has  gone  over  into  the  higher 
state  as  actuality.;  in  which  all  reflection  is  "  sup- 
pressed," and  the  movement  carried  over  into  a  third 
stage ;  and  as  simple  actual  it  can  be  nothing  other 
than  the  thought-process  in  its  Idea,  whose  move- 
ment we  have  been  all  along  absorbingly  contemplat- 
ing. We  have  thus  clearly  attained,  and  pass  over 
within  the  still  higher  stage  of — 


78  knowledge  of  a  creator, 

The  Idea. 

The  Idea  has  universal  essence  within  itself  as  a 
eelf-containing  and  self-contained  whole,  with  all  its 
particulars  indiscriminate  and  unformalized,  except 
as  in  their  logical  law:  and  is  thus  subjective  Idea. 
The  movement  then  differentiates  and  successively 
*'  suppresses ''  the  differences,  as  mechanical  distinc- 
tion in  molecular  exclusion  and  inclusion  —  chemical 
combination  by  annulling  the  complemental  elements 
in  a  third  thing  —  and  teleological  construction  by  ad- 
aptations to  purposed  design ;  and  is  thus  objective 
Idea.  From  this,  the  movement  carries  the  Idea 
into  spontaneous  activity  as  Life,  intellectual  activity 
as  Cognition,  and  voluntary  activity  as  Will,  which  is 
the  knowing  itself  as  the  good,  and  producing  itself 
into  the  Eternally  good,  and  thus  completing  and  rest- 
ing all  thought  in  Absolute  Good,  as  the  Idea  in  its 
Identity. 

In  this  the  Science  of  Logic  is  completed,  and  the 
finishing  of  this  is  really  the  consummation  of  the 
philosophy;  for  the  logic  has  carried  out  the  full 
cycle  of  all  tiiinking.  The  Second  Part,  or  Science 
of  Nature,  is  but  taking  up  anew  the  Objective  Idea, 
and  with  minuter  precision  purifying  Mind  from  its 
otherness  in  matter,  and  therein  dissolving  nature 
wholly  into  Intelligence ;  and  then  taking  the  Subjec- 
tive Idea,  and  more  purely  sublimating  Mind  through 
social  Law,  Art,  Eeligion,  and  pure  Philosophy,  to  Ab- 
solute Reason,  as  the  permanent  gaze  upon  open  truth 


CRITICAL  PHILOSOPHY.  79 

itself.  In  this  way  the  speculation  has  given  to  it- 
self the  figure  of  a  full  ensphering  rather  than  of  a 
progress  circling  into  itself;  but  its  entire  wealth 
lies  permanently  invested  in  the  Absolute  Good,  as 
the  Idea  in  its  own  Identity. 

The  comprehensive  inquiry  we  make  then  is,  What  is 
the  intrinsic  value  of  this  Absolute  good  ?  The  answer 
may  be  fairly  accorded,  That  it  is  the  entire  compass 
of  all  knowledge,  so  far  as  the  subjective  process  of 
knowing  is  concerned.  The  most  searching  criticism 
will  find  scarcely  anything,  perhaps  utterly  nothing, 
to  object  to  it  as  a  process  complete  of  the  science 
of  thinking.  And  granting  that,  is  giving  to  it  all 
it  asks.  It  never  proposed  to  itself  the  doing  of  any 
more,  but  denies  that  anything  more  can  be  done. 
All  knowing  is  but  thinking ;  and  all  the  real  which 
thinking  can  get  is  the  thought  it  posits.  In  the 
Phenomenology  it  begins  with  the  immediate  objec- 
tive, but  it  soon  excludes  from  itself  all  but  the  medi- 
ating movement,  and  finishes  with  the  thought  of  an 
actual  moving,  which  is  itself  subject  to  nothing  but 
the  necessity  to  a  perpetual  counter-movement.  And 
in  the  Logic,  it  begins  with  the  pure  being  in  ac- 
tivity, and  finds  no  other  object  but  the  otherness 
given  in  its  own  antithetic  movement.  To  the  think- 
ing subject  the  posited  thought  is  object,  and  a  seem- 
ing outer  or  other  than  the  subject;  but  the  com- 
pleted movement  expels  and  explains  the  illusion, 
and  we  know  that  every  object  has  been  but  some 
image  reflected  from  the  subject.    The  Reason  has 


80  KNOWLEDGE   OF  A   CREATOR.       . 

been  fairly  recognized,  and  set  to  watch  the  though t- 
moTement,  and  thoroughly  expounded  the  whole  pro- 
cess of  thinking ;  and  then  the  speculation  aflSrms 
there  is  no  other  knowing.  And  now  what  is  it  worth, 
intrinsically,  as  philosophy  of  knowing  overt  realities? 
The  only  true  answer  is,  It  is  worthless  ;  for  it  is  not 
such  knowing.  It  thinks,  and  seems  to  know  ;  but  in 
knowing  that  its  thinking  is  but  a  seeming,  it  makes 
all  knowing  empty. 

The  Universal  is  in,  and  for,  and  brought  out  by, 
the  Absolute  thinking-process  only ;  and  the  inclina- 
tion, or  force,  or  obligation,  or  will,  which  the  Ab- 
solute knows  is  solely  the  prompting  as  an  inner 
subjective  logical  law.  The  objects,  with  their  space 
and  time,  can  be  in  common  for  no  other  personality 
than  solely  for  the  subjective  thinker.  The  Abso- 
lute is  as  the  Oriental  Brahm,  thinking  alone  as  he 
gazes  silent  and  absorbed  into  his  own  body ;  and  this 
body,  as  Universal  nature,  is  but  the  reflex  of  this 
silent  spontaneous  cogitating.  Here  is  all  the  being 
and  knowing  possible,  according  to  this  philosophy ; 
and  it  cannot  long  satisfy.  Even  if  our  common  con- 
scious knowing  be  but  an  illusive  seeming,  it  has 
many  persons,  with  their  common  objects,  in  a  com- 
mon space  and  common  time,  which  no  mere  sub- 
jective thinking  can  account  for;  since  thus  there 
is  but  the  one  thinker,  with  the  objects  and  their 
one  space  and  time  solely  in  his  consciousness.  That 
Reason  which  has  so  wonderfully  projected  this  tran- 
scendental thinking  is  competent,  rightly  applied,  to 


KNOWLEDGE  IN  THE  REASON.  81 

real  objective  knowingy  and  therein  attaining  positive 
things  as  well  as  its  own  posited  thoughts.  Philoso- 
phy has  not  a  comprehensive  Science  of  Knowledge, 
till  it  knows  a  personal  Absolute  Creator,  and  an  overt 
Creation  as  an  expression  of  his  thought  held  in  stable 
reality  by  his  will. 


CHAPTER  II. 

REASON  COMPETENT  TO  KNOW  AN  OUTER  CREATION. 

Speculatton  cannot  rest  short  of  thorough  insight 
and  complete  comprehension.  So  long  as  facts  any- 
where merely  appear,  and  are  arranged  according  to 
experience  only,  the  thoughtful  mind  will  wake  the 
inquiry.  How  the  fact  came  ?  And  why  thus,  and  not 
otherwise  ?  It  will  not  suffice  to  explain  why  the 
appearance  has  such  a  seeming  to  us  ;  the  mind 
must  come  to  know  the  real  in  the  appearing,  or  its 
speculative  inquiry  will  be  irrepressible.  Nor  should 
any  one  choose  it  should  be  otherwise.  The  most 
earnest  and  untiring  speculation  is  never  dangerous 
if  kept  within  the  light  of  reason ;  but  the  most  dan- 
gerous delusions  and  the  most  hopeless  contradictions 
arise  from  the  attempt  to  bring  speculative  truth 
within  the  conclusions  of  the  logical  judgment.  De- 
liverance alike  from  scepticism  and  credulity,  and 
6 


82  KNOWLEDGE   OF  A   CREATOR. 

reverence  for  God,  and  trust  in  his  Revelation  come 
only  from  the  cultivated  use  of  human  reason.  The 
deepest  want  of  the  most  sceptical  age  is  knowledge 
guided  by  reason.  The  first  inquiry,  then,  is,  What 
is,  distinctively,  reason-knowing? 

1.  The  ESSENTIAL  Process  to  thorough  and  com- 
prehensive Knowledge.  —  The  Sense  has  various 
organs  which  may  all  at  once  present  their  manifold 
content.  This  must  be  separately  distinguished,  and 
the  distinctions  accurately  defined,  and  we  thus  have 
distinct  and  definite  particulars  appearing  in  conscious- 
ness, and  known  as  phenomena.  So  far  is  sense- 
knowing,  and  here  knowledge  in  sense  stops  short. 
It  is  confined  to  the  particular  appearance,  and  never 
attains  the  intrinsic  essence  nor  the  connected  rela- 
tions. The  content  in  mass  has  been  wrought  into 
separate  particulars,  and  they  are  in  the  mind's  grasp 
as  a  manifold  of  disconnected  appearances.  The 
Sense-function  may,  therefore,  be  known  as  the  appre- 
hension  of  particular  phenomena. 

In  reflecting  on  our  sense-experience  we  note  that 
the  varied  phenomena  have  appeared  in  groups,  and 
that  certain  particulars  have  ever  appeared  in  each 
other's  company  ;  and  that  in  other  cases  appearances 
have  been  consecutive  in  an  invariable  order,  and  we 
sort  and  arrange  our  mingled  appearances,  into  the 
aggregate  communities  and  consecutive  series,  as  we 
have  been  taught  from  former  experience.  We  come 
to  think  each  appearance  in  the  common  group  to  be 


KNOWLEDGE  IN  THE  REASON.  83 

an  attribute  of  the  aggregate  whole,  and  each  se- 
quence a  link  in  the  perpetuated  series,  and  so  we 
conclude  the  aggregate  to  be  a  common  thing  with 
so  many  attributes,  and  the  series  a  connected  order 
of  established  sequences  ;  and  herein  the  Understand- 
ing judges  each  to  stand  in  identity  with  the  common 
whole,  and  makes  each  particular  a  predicate  of  the 
w^iole  as  the  subject.  But  as  thus  far  the  Judgment 
is  only  in  accordance  with  the  facts  given  in  sense-ex- 
perience, and  as  the  particulars  have  only  invariably 
appeared  in  such  groups  and  sequences,  there  is  no 
known  ground  in  which  the  attributes  inhere,  and  no 
known  source  to  which  the  sequences  adhere,  and  we 
cannot  verify  our  assumed  identity  of  subject  and 
predicate  in  our  empirical  Judgments.  It  is  mere 
logical  classification  after  the  order  of  experience, 
and  at  the  most  is  the  probability  of  Opinion  with 
no  certainty  in  the  logical  conclusion.  The  Under- 
standing-function may  thus  be  known  as  the  sorting 
of  all  phenomena  according  to  the  logic  of  Experi- 
ence ;  or,  in  short,  the  logical  Judgment. 

By  an  insight  of  these  grouped  and  consecutive 
appearances,  we  attain  the  substantial  ground  and 
the  efficient  source,  which  necessarily  and  inherently 
shut  the  phenomena  together  in  their  respective  com- 
munions and  series ;  and  we  therein  come  to  know, 
not  merely  in  reflection  that  our  experience  has 
been  in  such  invariable  communion  and  succession, 
but  that  with  such  grounds  and  sources  the  experi- 
ence could  not  have  been  otherwise ;   and   that  the 


84  KNOWLEDGE  OF  A   CREATOR. 

appearances  in  experience  have  been  determined  in 
conditions  lying  back  of  all  experience.  It  is  only  in 
the  possession  of  a  faculty  competent  to  such  insight, 
that  we  can  give  validity  to  any  Judgment,  and  make 
any  logical  conclusion  thoroughly  clear  and  complete- 
ly comprehensive.  Such  is  the  faculty  of  Eeason  ; 
and  we  may  know  its  function  as  the  comprehension 
of  universal  experience. 

Here  are  the  necessary  and  invariable  steps  in 
the  process  of  knowing  real  existences.  The  Sense 
apprehends  distinct  and  definite  Appearance ;  the 
logical  Judgment  gives  probable  conclusions  as  Opin- 
ion ;  the  finite  Reason,  so  far  as  it  attains  necessary 
and  universal  principles,  secures  comprehensive  Knowl- 
edge. Modern  Philosophy  has  mainly  ignored  the  com- 
prehensive function,  and  that  now  demands  special 
and  careful  contemplation. 

The  merely  sentient  animal  is  competent  to  intel- 
lectual action,  through  the  first  and  second  steps  of 
this  process :  the  empirical  consciousness  in  man 
circumscribes  itself  within  these  limits;  but  since 
man  has  been  endowed  with  rationality,  though  he 
may  not  have  come  to  recognize  distinctively  what 
reason  is,  yet  will  its  possession  necessarily  drift  him 
on  to  speculations  beyond  Sense-appearance  and  Em- 
pirical logic.  The  prompting  enterprise  of  his  reason 
is  irrepressible  ;  and  the  hopelessness  of  the  effort  is 
equally  sad  to  contemplate,  when  it  vainly  strives  to 
repress  philosophical  speculation  as  too  adventurous, 
or  to  satisfy  the  philosophic  impulse  by  any  indue- 


KNOWLEDGE  IN  THE   REASON.  85 

tion  and  classification  of  the  phenomena  of  experience. 
Even  could  he  find  all  phenomena,  and  their  order  of 
occurrence  in  universal  experience,  the  deeper  want 
of  his  being  would  be  still  unsupplied,  and  the  more 
facts  he  had,  the  more  intensely  would  he  j^eara  to 
know  what  forces  determined  them,  and  what  prin- 
ciples controlled  them.  But  in  the  exclusion  of 
rational  insight,  he  can  legitimately  employ  neither 
essential  forces  nor  ultimate  principles,  for  they  are 
wholly  supersensible. 

What  is  thus  unconsciously  within  the  man  is  per- 
petually denying  to  him  any  rest  in  merely  logical 
conclusions  from  empirical  data.  Finding  facts  and 
classifying  them  by  experiment  may  for  a  time  amuse, 
but  never  can  satisfy.  His  unconscious  reason  forces 
him  somehow  to  deem  the  relations  of  sense-appear- 
ances to  be  fixed  connections ;  and  though  quite  illo- 
gically,  yet  is  he  ever  assuming  that  his  qualities 
have  substance  under  them,  and  his  sequences  have 
cause  between  them,  and  thus  he  surreptitiously 
makes  of  his  experience  a  fixed  nature  of  things. 
Nor  can  he  stop  in  nature,  for  his  unrecognized  rea- 
son must  rise  above  it,  and  assume  a  first  Cause ;  and 
then  will  come  in,  what  to  his  infidel  philosophy  must 
be,  superstitious  reverence  and  worship.-  He  cannot 
refrain  from  talking  about  natural  laws  and  spiritual 
responsibilities,  though  his  philosophy  most  resolutely 
denies  that  he  can  know  anything  about  either  of  them. 

Such  prompting  to  reach  beyond  experience  is  a 
sure  witness  to  a  supersensible  endowment,  and  a 


86  KNOWLEDGE    OF  A   CREATOR. 

perpetual  rebuke  to  the  philosophy  which  struggles 
hard  to  get  on  with  no  acknowledgment  of  it.  We 
may  refer  to  any  one  instance  of  clear  and  quiet  con- 
victi(m,  and  a  satisfactory  resting  in  the  knowing, 
and  we  shall  ever  find  that  this  satisfied  conviction 
is  in  the  insight  of  a  controlling  connection,  by  which 
the  manifold  is  seized  comprehensively  in  complete 
individuality.  The  sense  and  the  understanding  may 
perfect  the  appearances,  and  complete  the  external 
relations  in  a  concluded  total,  and  we  may  opine 
what  the  thing  is,  compared  with  other  experiences ; 
but  we  only  know  its  essential  nature,  vthen  we  have 
looked  through  its  intrinsic  connection  and  found  the 
indivisible  tie  which  holds  the  many  in  its  one  com- 
prehension. Any  Object,  as  a  Bird  or  a  Beast,  may 
have  all  its  phenomenal  parts  apprehended,  and  these 
may  be  sorted  and  arranged  in  body  and  members 
exactly  and  completely;  but  we  know  the  animal 
only  in  knowing  the  living  sentient  bond  that  thor- 
oughly individualizes  the  organism.  We  put  to- 
gether and  name  a  House,  as  an  outside  construction 
of  brick  and  timbers,  but  we  comprehensively  know 
the  bouse  only  in  the  design  which  runs  through  it 
to  its  end,  and  the  forces  which  gras,p  the  whole  in 
balanced  unity.  The  manifold  in  anything  may  ap- 
pear in  Sense,  and  be  classified  as  a  whole  in  the 
Judgment,  but  its  essence  is  comprehensively  known 
only  by  the  insight  of  Reason. 

Without  here  regarding  the   distinction,  whether 
this  inner  tie  be  that  of  the  thought  after  which  the 


KNOWLEDGE    IN  THE   REASON.  87 

thing  has  been  constituted,  or  that  of  the  forces  which 
have  constituted  it  by  equilibrating  themselves  in  it, 
we  will  adduce  some  plain  examples  of  comprehension 
beyond  Sense  and  logical  Judgment,  and  in  which  is 
attained  a  thorough  knowledge  that  the  insight  of 
Reason  can  alone  secure. 

The  manner  in  which  we  use  and  interpret  expres- 
sive Symbols  is  directly  in  point  to  exhibit  the  work 
of  the  Reason  beyond  Sense  and  Judgment.  Animal 
cries  are  tlie  impulse  of  constitutional  nature,  and  are 
given  in  the  same  way  under  the  like  conditions,  at 
all  times,  by  the  same  species.  A  Symbol  is  an  ex- 
pression outwardly  of  an  inner  sentiment,  and  the 
expression  must  be  wholly  ruled  by  the  inner  senti- 
ment, and  thus  hold  the  very  thought  or  feeling  with- 
in it  if  it  is  to  become  in  any  way  intelligible.  So 
the  national  seal,  or  flag,  expresses  the  sovereign  will 
and  pledge  of  authority,  and  these  are  so  put  in  to 
the  symbol  that  another  can  take  them  out  and  inter- 
pret them.  But  Reason  alone  can  so  put  in  or  take 
out,  and  neither  Sense  nor  Judgment  can.  And  so  of 
class  emblems,  party  badges,  or  religious  rites  and 
ceremonies, — they  are  all  symbols  outwardly  express- 
ing an  inner  meaning,  and  such  meaning  Reason'only 
can  give  or  take  ;  and  hence  symbolic  speech  can  be  a 
mode  of  communication  only  between  rational  beings. 

The  Symbol  may  be  in  modulated  tones  addressed 
to  the  ear,  or  colored  characters  presented  to  the  eye, 
and  the  organs  may 'take  exactly  and  completely  all 
that  sense  can  apprehend,  and  the  judgment  may  se- 


05  KNOWLEDGE    OF   A   CREATOR. 

lect  and  arrange  the  elemental  parts  according  to  any 
empirical  classification,  but  it  is  meaningless  term  and 
outer  letter  only  till  the  Reason  put  in  and  take  out 
the  quickening  power  of  Sentiment,  which  is  the  soul 
of  the  whole  systematic  arrangement.  There  is  then 
no  longer  any  separate  particulars.  Every  letter  is 
one  in  the  word  ;  all  the  words  are  one  in  the  sen- 
tence; and  all  the  sentences  are  one  in  the  speech; 
and  that  which  the  insight  of  Reason  alone  reads 
shuts  every  part  together  in  a  single.  The  animal 
organs  might  apprehend  the  whole  as  well  as  the  hu- 
man ;  the  rational  being  alone  can  have  the  thorough 
insight,  and  take  the  comprehensive  meaning.  It  is 
another  thing  to  the  Reason  than  it  can  be  to  the 
Sense-experience ;  and  to  this  it  is  a  perfect  unit,  dis- 
membered and  so  far  destroyed  if  a  single  element  be 
taken  from  it. 

So,  also,  we  may  instance  the  manner  in  which  the 
reason  reads  raechanical  Forces  in  outer  objects.  The 
sense-experience  attains  in  any  machine  all  the  partic- 
ulars of  form,  arrangement,  and  movement ;  but  no 
sense,  nor  judgment  according  to  sense,  can  know 
the  moving  force  which  actuates  the  working  engine. 
The  Animal  Sense  may  get  the  consciousness  of  ner- 
vous and  muscular  irritation  and  contraction  in  its 
own  body  and  members,  and  may  perceive  its  attach- 
ment to,  and  the  turning  of,  any  arranged  machinery 
which  it  may  be  working ;  but  the  power  itself  which 
moves  its  living  limbs,  and  passes  over  into  the  turn- 
ing machine,  no  animal  sense  can  ever  seize  and  hold 


KNOWLEDGE  IN  THE  REASON.  89 

up  to  its  own  gaze  in  the  light  of  consciousness.  But 
the  Reason-insight  penetrates  the  moving  parts  of*  the 
machine,  and  even  the  living  motions  of  the  animal 
body,  and  knows  the  force  that  wakes  and  works,  first 
in  the  animal  muscle,  and  then  in  the  arranged  ma- 
chinery. Till  this  force  is  thus  seen  moving  and 
working  in  every  part,  the  machinery  is  but  a  mass 
of  particulars,  each  standing  by  itself  and  isolate, 
but  that  force  runs  through  all  the  particulars  and 
makes  them  one,  and  the  whole  is  completely  compre- 
hended by  it. 

And  so,  moreover,  the  Sense-representation  can 
give  the  rising  and  setting  sun,  and  take  in  all  the 
revolutions  of  the  planets,  and  the  arrangements  of 
the  visible  heavens;  and  observations  and  calcular 
tions  therefrom  may  fill  out  all  the  scientific  plan  of 
formal  astronomy  ;  but  no  observation  nor  deductions 
from  experience  can  bring  into  consciousness  the 
force  which  holds  the  stars  in  their  places  or  turns 
them  in  their  orbits ;  nor  know  what  force  is,  or  how 
it  works.  Force  is  beyond  the  sphere  of  Sense,  and 
all  the  heavenly  bodies  are  separate  bodies,  and  in 
the  apprehension  can  be  grasped  only  in  imaginary 
constellations.  But  the  insight  of  Reason  penetrates 
the  Sense-appearance  and  knows  the  forces  which  de- 
termine them ;  that  without  the  force  the  appearance 
could  not  be,  and  that  with  such  forces  the  appear- 
ances could  be  in  no  other  manner.  The  forces  are 
themselves  the  essential  substances  and  acting  causes, 
and  as  the  Reason  has  them,  they  necessarily  connect 


90  KNOWLEDGE   OF  A   CREATOR. 

the  separate  phenomena  together,  and  all  the  moving 
worlds  make  but  the  single  universe.  The  intrinsic 
connections  hidden  from  all  Sense,  and  leaving  matter 
to  be  understood  only  as  experience  puts  under  one 
part  some  other  part,  make  to  the  Reason  tlie  world  of 
matter  more  than  understood,  even  thoroughly  seen 
and  perfectly  comprehended  in  its  essential  and  neces- 
sary unity.  The  parts  are  buc  one  in  the  reciprocal 
forces  which  shut  them  all  together. 

The  Beautiful  in  any  work  of  Art,  or  the  True  in 
any  Geometrical  Diagram,  or  the  Good  in  Moral  Char- 
acter, might  hero  be  appropriately  noticed  as  what 
the  insight  of  Reason  only  can  reach,  and  by  which 
the  manifold  in  either  sphere  is  completely  individual- 
ized and  instantly  comprehended.  There  will,  how- 
ever, be  frequent  occasions  in  our  further  advance 
for  the  better  contemplation  of  these  and  other  in- 
stances of  supersensible  insight.  It  need  now  only 
be  remarked  that  the  insight  of  Reason  as  the  last 
step  in  Knowledge  has  truly  in  it,  as  brought  along 
and  retained,  the  whole  content  of  the  two  former 
steps.  It  may  be  either  as  a  piercing  glance,  or  a 
steady  gaze,  which  seizes  the  whole  at  once  in  perfect 
comprehension.  The  tie  that,  in  uniting,  cancels  the 
manifoldness,  holds  still  within  it  all  that  is  individ- 
ualized by  it,  and  thus  the  Reason  knows  all  in  the 
one  glance  which  catches  the  comprehending  connec- 
tive. Reason-knowing  is  perfect,  instant,  comprehen- 
sive, knowing  at  a  glance,  and  is  also  incessant-know- 
ing as  a  constant  gaze.     Both  the  outer  and  inner  are 


ABSURDITIES   OF   SENSE   TRUE   IN   THE   REASON.        91 

together  in  thorough  contemplation,  and  thus  the  Rea- 
son has  in  its  grasp  Absolute  Truth. 

2.  Specula-tive  Absurdities  in  Sense  and  Logic 
BECOME  Truth  in  the  Reason.  —  All  men  have  rea- 
son, though  few  distinctively  and  clearly  recognize  it. 
Hence  the  irrepressible  curiosity  that  reaches  after 
explanations  beyond  appearances,  and  also  beyond 
any  conclusions  which  may  logically  be  deduced  from 
them.  In  his  ignorance  of  Reason,  and  its  appropri- 
ate application  to  comprehensive  knowledge,  the  man 
resorts  to  the  functions  of  Sense  and  Judgment,  of 
which  he  has  conscious  possession,  and  seeks  to  an- 
swer those  questions  of  Reason  by  his  Senses  and 
logical  Understanding;  hence  the  large  amount  of 
profitless  and  delusive  speculations  which  abound  in 
every  age.  This  remanding  to  Sense  and  Logic  what 
belongs  to  a  higher  function  necessarily  induces  con- 
tradictions and  absurdities.  The  lower  faculty  has 
been  set  to  work  out  the  problems  of  a  higher,  and 
self-deluvsion  and  self-contradiction  should  be  expect- 
ed. The  whole  is  cured,  and  absurdities  avoided, 
while  truth  is  established,  by  carefully  using  the  right 
and  excluding  the  impertinent  interference  of  the 
wrong  faculty. 

The  whole  sphere  of  Antinomies  in  the  conflicting 
of  different  intellectual  functions  has  been  by  others 
formally  stated,  but  we  need  here  to  give  only  some 
leading  examples. 

Motion,  and  Change  in  degree  of  movement,  to  the 


92  KNOWLEDGE    OF  A   CREATOR. 

sense,  have  logical  absurdities.  The  law  of  continuity 
is  inviolable,  and  forbids  a  leap  over  any  degree  in 
the  increment  or  retardation  of  motion.  How  then 
may  motion  begin?  and  having  begun,  how  cease? 
Its  degrees  in  velocity  must  each  be  either  indivisible 
or  infinitely  divisible  ;  but  if  the  former,  no  passing  them 
can  make  progress ;  and  if  the  latter,  then  can  there 
be  no  progress  except  in  an  infinite  time.  And  so 
with  any  change  in  rate  of  motion ;  the  degree  can  be 
neither  increased  nor  diminished  without  the  like  ab- 
surdities. 

So  with  any  knowledge  of  Space  or  Time.  They 
must  be  subjective  in  mind,  or  objective  out  of  mind. 
If  subjective,  there  must  be  as  many  spaces  and  times 
as  conscious  minds,  for  each  has  its  own.  But  if  they 
are  objective,  they  must  have  properties  distinguishing 
them  from  non-existences ;  and  yet  of  space,  its  only 
property  is  extension,  and  of  time  it  is  succession. 
But  extended  existing  space  must  have  another  space 
in  which  to  be,  and  successive  existing  time  must 
have  another  time  in  which  to  pass.  Are  they  then 
non-existences  except  in  our  subjective  minds?  If 
so,  then  existing  bodies  may  both  be  and  change,  with 
no  existing  outer  space  and  time. 

And  so  again,  the  being  of  Matter  is  an  absurdity ; 
for  if  matter  is,  it  is  either  compound  or  simple.  If 
the  former,  it  must  be  infinitely  divisible,  and  its  infi- 
nite compounds  have  still  infinite  spaces  and  times.  If 
the  latter,  the  simples  are  entities  which  have  neither 
inner  nor  outer,  neither  upper  nor  lower  sides,  and 


ABSURDITIES   OF   SENSE   TRUE   IN   THE   REASON.         93 

can  occupy  no  portions  of  space  or  time.  So  again, 
if  matter  exist,  it  must  either  be  solid  or  have  voids 
within  it.  If  the  former,  then  it  must  be  incompressi- 
ble, contrary  to  the  fact ;  if  the  latter,  then  matter 
must  act  on  matter  through  voids  of  matter,  which 
would  be  effects  where  there  were  no  causes.  Is, 
then,  matter  to  be  made  conceivable  as  points  neither 
solid  nor  void  ?  Such  unextended  points  could  neither 
hold  together  from  within,  nor  resist  from  without. 
The  very  existence  of  matter  is  full  of  logical  con- 
tradictions, which  no  work  of  the  understanding  can 
solve. 

And  equally  so  with  the  existence  of  spirit  as  other 
than  matter.  If  immaterial,  and  thus  free  and  re- 
sponsible, we  have  the  contradiction  to  nature  and 
nature's  laws,  which  nowhere  give  liberty,  but  bind 
in  conditions  without  an  alternative;  and  if  such 
order  may  be  broken,  then  universal  scepticism  must 
follow.  On  the  other  hand,  spiritual  liberty  must  be, 
or  conscious  obligation  and  responsibility  cannot  be. 
Without  freedom,  law  is  tyranny,  and  the  stings  of  con- 
science an  atrocious  constitutional  perversion,  and  all 
penalty  is  savage  cruelty.  The  speculation  of  the 
ages  has  here  been  in  dialectical  conflict,  and  any 
help  from  sense  or  logic  is  altogether  hopelessly  im- 
possible. 

Finally  here,  if  we  inquire.  Whence  is  the  Uni- 
verse ?  all  logical  attempts  to  answer  must  run  into 
hopeless  contradictions.  The  universe  has  necessary 
being  in  itself  j  or  it  has  been  self-produced ;  or  it  has 


94  KNOWLEDGE   OF  A   CREATOR. 

had  some  external  Creator.  If  we  take  the  first, 
then,  as  necessary  being,  it  must  have  been  ever 
necessary  and  ever  unchanging  in  its  necessity,  while 
now  nature  is  perpetually  changing.  If  we  take  the 
second,  then  the  actual  has  come  from  a  potential; 
but  to  be  potential  for  a  universe  must  be  to  have 
inner  causality  on  conditions,  and  so  already  an  ex- 
istence, and  running  at  once  into  the  former  absur- 
dity of  necessary  existence  with  changes.  We  have 
then  only  the  third,  and  if  created  by  another,  it  first 
existed  in  that  other;  and  we  have -just  the  same 
dialectic  to  percur  which  we  have  just  gone  through 
from  the  start  after  universal  nature's  origin.  The 
very  attempt  to  find  an  origin  logically  involves  the 
absurdity  of  a  first  which  cannot  stand  except  as  a 
second.  If  we  call  the  first  a  Beginner,  a  First  Cause, 
a  Cause  in  Liberty,  we  have  already  seen  the  ab- 
surdities involved  in  each.  If  we  say,  he  is  him- 
self the  Infinite,  it  is  but  putting  all  finites  into  a 
laiger,  and  somewhere  stopping  on  a  largest  finite. 
If  we  call  him  the  Unconditioned,  it  will  somewhere 
be  a  resting  on  a  conditioner  that  has  already  con- 
ditions put  within  him.  If  at  length  we  call  him  the 
Absolute,  logically  we  must  find  him  so  little  absolved, 
that  is  so  much  bound,  that  he  must  bind  all  below 
to  him.  The  logical  Infinite  is  merely  an  outside 
finite,  the  logical  Unconditioned  is  but  an  upper  con- 
ditioned, and  a  logical  Absolute  has  in  it  already  the 
bonds  you  arbitrarily  cease  to  look  for  from  beyond. 
In   many   ways,  yea,   in   all   ways   which   transcend 


ABSURDITIES   OF  SENSE  TRUE  IN  THE  REASON.        95 

nature's  experienced  connections,  a  dexterous  logi- 
cian may  astonish  by  taking  you  to  insoluble  contra- 
dictions  iVom  the  plainest  experiences.  But  in  all 
such  cases,  it  is  a  logical  legerdemain  in  which  the 
conjurer  is  his  own  dupe.  He  has  put  empirical  logic 
to  the  solution  of  problems  which  it  cannot  compre- 
hend, and  which  by  following  he  must  misapprehend, 
and  to  any  one  whose  insight  makes  clear  the  point 
of  his  delusion,  there  is  not  even  amusement  in  look- 
ing upon  the  empty  absurdities. 

But  the  case  becomes  very  different  when  we  put 
these  speculations  in  the  light  that  reveals,  and  at 
the  sam-e  time  dispels,  the  delusion.  The  reason 
never  so  deludes,  and  once  to  let  the  reason  reveal 
the  source  of  the  illusion  is  forever  to  dissipate  it. 
We  will  give  examples  from  both  the  Sense  and  the 
logical  Judgment,  and  from  the  former,  both  that  of 
a  transcendental  diminution  and  a  transcendental  ex- 
pansion. 

To  sense,  a  central  point  can  be  no  object,  except 
as  limited  all  about; "and  a  surface  also  can  be  no 
object  to  sense,  except  as  having  limits  on  both  sides. 
Every  object  of  place  must  have  outside  and  inside, 
upper  and  lower;  and  every  object  in  period  must 
have  beginning  and  ending,  before  and  after.  Noth- 
ipg  is  known  by  sense,  that  it  does  not  intellectually 
construct;  and  so  to  sense-experience  a  mathematical 
point,  and  line,  can  be  no  objects.  But  to  the  reason, 
a  limit  is  an  object  as  truly  as  the  limited,  the  centre 
as  well  as  the  area,  the  diameter  and  circumference 


96  KNOWLEDGE  OF  A   CREATOR. 

of  a  pure  circle  as  clearly  as  a  material  rod  or  ring. 
Reason  has  objects  to  itself,  thus,  which  can  be  no 
objects  of  sense ;  and  hence,  when  it  has  its  own  pe- 
culiar problem  for  solution,  there  should  be  antici- 
pated only  confusion  and  uncertainty,  if  it  allow  the 
sense-objects  to  be  mistaken  and  used  for  its  own. 
And  from  just  such  mistakes,  the  absurdities  as  above 
adduced  take  their  rise. 

Thus,  for  a  first  instance,  reason  may  affirm,  that 
there  must  be  an  Axle  in  the  revolving  cylinder 
which  itself  does  not  turn.  And  it  may  make  it  its 
problem  to  find  and  recognize  such  stationary  axle. 
IfJ  now,  the  constructing  sense-faculty  offer  assist- 
ance and  be  permitted  to  delude  by  interposing  its 
object,  then  must  there  occur  absurdities  in  self- 
contradictions.  The  sense-object  as  axle  of  the  re- 
volving cylinder  has  an  outer  and  inner  side,  and 
has  been  defined  by  an  agency  that  has  gone  all 
around  it.  Hence  the  sense-axle  must  be  itself  a 
cylinder,  and  have  still  within  it  the  axle  which  does 
not  revolve.  But  every  axle  to  sense,  however  far 
it  may  make  analysis,  must  be  a  constructed  object, 
and  make  necessity  for  an  infinite  divisibility,  and 
thus  introduce  the  absurdities  of  conflicting  and  un- 
equal infinites.  And  to  the  sense,  such  proposition 
must  have  such  self-contradiction. 

But,  if  we  will  exclude  all  such  sense-mistaking, 
and  let  reason  alone  work  her  own  problem,  there 
can  occur  no  absurdities.  Every  diameter  of  every 
circular  plane  in  the  cylinder  revolves  about  its  mid- 


ABSUEDITIES  OF  SENSE  TRUE  IN  THE  REASON.        97 

point,  and  on  opposite  sides  of  tbat  mid-point  the 
movements  of  the  two  portions  respectively  of  all 
the  diameters  are  in  opposite  directions  each  to 
each.  The  mid-point  is  a  limit  between  opposite 
movements,  and  can  itself  have  no  movement ;  and 
as  being  the  same  for  all  the  diameters  of  any  one 
circular  plane  in  the  cylinder,  it  becomes  a  limit 
at  which  all  the  radii  of  that  plane  meet.  So  the 
contiguous  points,  limiting  all  the  radii  of  all  the 
circular  planes  in  the  cylinder,  become  a  central  line 
as  axle  to  the  cylinder,  and  which  can  in  no  part 
have  any  revolution.  And  now,  this  axle  to  the 
cylinder,  as  object  for  the  reason,  is  a  limit,  and  not 
a  limited ;  it  needs  no  diminution  and  can  have  none, 
nor  can  it  open  any  occasion  for  introducing  con- 
tradictory infinites.  The  contradiction  came  from 
the  antinomy  between  sense  and  reason,  and  when 
the  distinction  of  faculty  is  known,  and  reason  is  al- 
lowed to  do  her  work  in  her  normal  way,  there  is 
no  antinomy  nor  absurdity.  And  so  with  all  the 
contradictory  infinites  that  may  come  in,  as  above 
shown,  in  space,  time,  motion,  and  rest,  &c.,  they 
never  trouble  except  in  the  mistaking  of  a  sense- 
-  limited  for  a  reason-limit. 

Thus,  when  we  approach  the  infinite  by  a  process 
of  diminution;  but  a  difierent  absurdity  occurs  when 
we  go  after  an  infinite  in  a  process  of  expansion. 
The  solution  keeps  to  the  same  rule  of  putting  the 
right  function  to  the  execution  of  the  proposed 
problem. 

7 


98  KNOWLEDGE  OP  A   CREATOR. 

We  may  have  an  extending  line  and  an  enlar- 
ging circle,  and  neither  can  reach  to  limits  which 
may  not  be  surpassed.  To  the  sense  no  object  is 
definite  till  its  construction  is  completed,  and  the 
longest  line  and  largest  circle  may  still  be  as  in- 
finitely augmented  as  the  least.  The  point  has  no 
more  an  infinite  expansibility  than  the  largest  circle, 
nor  is  it  capable  of  infinite  extension  any  more  than 
the  longest  line.  The  reason,  however,  can  say  of 
space,  that  there  must  be  a  whole  which  is  inclusive 
of  every  part,  and  it  may  make  it  its  problem  to  at- 
tain the  knowledge  of  space  as  infinite,  and  therein 
know  space  to  be  an  absolute  w^hole.  But  if  here 
there  be  allowed  the  interposition  of  sense-construc- 
tion, and  a  mistaking  of  sense-object  for  reason-object, 
there  must  occur  delusion  and  absurdity.  The  sense- 
object  must  be  limited  all  about,  and  there  can  be  no 
known  space  except  as  a  line  is  drawn  through  or 
around  it.  The  reason  has  space  with  no  limits,  the 
sense  has  space  only  within  limits,  and  the  confound- 
ing of  objects  so  heterogeneous  must  involve  endless 
contradictions. 

But  all  possibility  of  such  contradiction  is  excluded 
when  the  reason  keeps  its  own  object  and  does  its 
own  work.  While,  as  an  object  of  sense,  space  comes 
within  consciousness  with  the  construction  of  any  ob- 
ject in  place,  and  the  space  goes  from  the  conscious- 
ness with  the  loss  of  the  construction  in  place,  and 
no  space  is  known  except  as  some  space  is  limited, 
yet  to  the  reason  space  itself  is  object,  with  no  limits 


ABSURDITIES  OF  SENSE  TRUE  IN  THE  REASON.        99 

in  or  about  it.  Reason  knows  Space  itself  as  concrete 
whole  in  itself,  and  every  part  adhering  to  its  contig- 
uous part  with  no  possibility  of  sundering,  and  that  no 
part  is  movable  from  where  it  is,  and  transferable  to 
any  other  part  of  space.  There  cannot  be  the  putting 
of  any  more  space  into  space,  nor  the  taking  of  any 
space  out  of  space,  nor  the  adding  of  any  more  on 
to  space,  and  thus  there  is  no  void  of  space  to  the 
reason  from  within  or  from  without.  Space  is  a  unit 
to  the  reason,  prior  to  any  sense-construction  of  place, 
and  there  can  be  no  extra  space  which  is  not  already 
concrete  in  the  one  space.  This  reason-idea  is  the 
true  Infinite,  excluding  all  finite.  So  soon  as  we 
conceive  of  a  sense-limited  within  space,  we  have 
spoiled  the  infinite  and  put  two  finites  over  against 
each  other.  Exclude  all  sense-place,  and  space  itself 
is  one  limitless,  changeless  absolute,  having  neither 
contradiction,  absurdity,  nor  mystery  to  the  reason. 
The. finite  is  as  irrelevant  to  the  reason-object  as  is 
the  infinite  to  the  sense-object.  The  contradictions 
come  from  misappropriating  objects  and  functions. 
The  reason  works  normally  here,  but  the  sense  can- 
not here  be  employed  without  exposing  its  incompe- 
tency in  perpetual  absurdities. 

We  next  take  an  instance  of  logical  connection  in 
Judgment,  with  its  necessary  absurdities,  and  the 
removal  of  the  same  effectually  by  the  normal  use 
of  the  Reason. 

The  sense  apprehends  only  the  appearances,  and 
these  separately  and  singly.     When  the  logical  judg- 


100  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A    CREATOR. 

ment  would  put  them  together  in  things  and  events, 
it  must  go  according  to  the  order  of  past  experience, 
and  the  connection  of  the  facts  as  found  in  experi- 
ence must  be  taken  by  it  as  the  order  of  nature. 
As  the  order  has  been  found  to  be,  such  must  be 
assumed  as  nature^s  law ;  and  the  future  is  to  be 
expected  to  go  on  uniformly  as  the  past  has  done, 
though  no  inner  condition  is  known  why  the  next 
event  might  not  be  contradictory,  and  violate  the 
law.  One  substance  must  sustain  another,  and  one 
cause  must  produce  another,  and  there  can  be  no 
conceived  coherency  save  as  one  fact  is  interposed 
to  support  or  draw  another.  But  the  reason  may 
say  that  nature  itself  is  a  unit,  and  has  all  its  bal- 
ancing statics  and  working  dynamics  in  its  own 
being,  and  it  may  make  it  its  problem  to  find  its  de- 
termined persistency  in  connection  with  its  perpetual 
mutabilities. 

If,  then,  the  logical  faculty  be  allowed  to  operate, 
the  world  must  hold  its  rocks  and  mountains,  and  the 
elephant  must  hold  the  world,  and  the  tortoise  must 
hold  the  elephant,  and  thus  onward.  So  also,  the 
planet  must  control  the  satellite-revolutions,  and  the 
central  sun  must  control  the  planetary  revolutions, 
and  a  higher  centre  must  control  the  solar  systems ; 
and  we  can  have  no  alternative  to  perpetual  inter- 
positions with  no  ultimate.  And  so  also  with  the 
series  of  conditioned  .sequences ;  the  logic  must  leap 
from  step  to  step  with  no  final  landing-stair.  But  if 
we  exclude  the  impertinent  logical  interference,  and 


ABSURDITIES   OF  SENSE  TRUE  IN  THE  REASON.      101 

let  the  reason  do  the  work  with  its  insight  of  con- 
servative, correlative,  and  equivalent  forces,  the 
universe  will  stand  in  balanced  stability,  and  move 
in  complicated  harmony,  with  no  possibilities  of  disas- 
ter, nor  absurdities  of  impossible  expedients.  Every 
part  of  the  universal  force  pushes  and  pulls,  just  as 
it  is  pushed  and  pulled ;  and  no  part  can  be  lost,  nor 
stand  isolate,  nor  tip  unequally  in  any  direction.  The 
whole  is  determined  from  its  own  centre  ;  and  every 
substance  has  its  stability,  and  every  cause  its  effi- 
ciency, in  its  own  place  and  in  connection  with  the 
whole. 

And  here,  if  reason  asks  further  for  a  Creator  of 
this  universal  force,  which  is  substance  for  all  that 
stands  and  cause  for  all  that  moves,  and  excludes  the 
logical  faculty  from  interfering  in  the  question,  the 
answer  will  be  both  consistent  and  prompt ;  while 
if  the  logical  faculty  meddle  in  the  matter,  the  whole 
is  confounded  with  assumptions  of  a  First  cause,  that 
has  its  necessitated  conditions  within  it  at  the  first, 
as  truly  as  in  any  subsequent  member  of  the  series. 
The  reason  knows  a  Cause  in  Liberty;  guiding  him- 
self by  what  he  knows  is  due  to  his  own  dignity  ; 
and  can  thus  begin  and  go  out  to  an  end  in  his  own 
determination.  And  therein  he  is  both  originator  and 
finisher  of  the  work  that  shall  most  glorify  and  honor 
himself. 

In  all  cases,  the  Reason  has  sufficient  light  in  itself 
to  guide  in  its  own  work,  and  eliminate  all  the  absur- 
dities of  the  meddling  Sense  and  logical  Judgment. 


102  knowledge  of  a  creator. 

3.  Distinction  between  knowing  Thoughts  and 
KNOWING  Things.  —  Both  science  of  Thought  and  sci- 
ence of  Thing,  are  alike  complete  comprehension  in 
reason,  and  thus  both  are  true  knowledge.  But  a 
prime  difference  between  them  is  in  this,  that  the 
science  of  thought  is  of  that  which  is  wholly  within 
and  essentially  subjective,  while  the  science  of  thing 
is  of  that  which  is  overt  and  essentially  objective.  — 
One  may  have  in  thought  a  mathematical  triangle  or 
circle,  and  while  the  figure  may  condition  other  fig- 
ures in  subjective  place  and  period,  it  cannot  resist 
and  react  upon  other  figures  themselves.  I  can  put 
two  equal  triangles  or  circles  to  coincide  in  thought 
with  each  other,  and  the  one  will  then  be  wholly  lost 
in  the  other.  All  the  energy  is  in  the  thinking,  and 
no  energy  goes  over  into  the  thought  to  give  to  it  any 
rigidity  or  stable  consistency.  And  in  the  same  way, 
one  may  have  in.  mental  conception  any  color  or 
sound,  and  w^hich  may  have  its  conditioning  rela- 
tionships of  place  and  period  with  other  conceptions, 
but  the  mere  conceptions  may  be  modified  in  any 
way  among  themselves  with  no  mutual  resistances 
and  interferences.  The  conception  has  in  itself  no 
hard  consistency,  and  all  the  energy  is  in  the  sub- 
jective thinking  process,  with  none  put  over  and 
persisting  in  the  stated  thought.  —  But  when  one 
has  the  plan  of  a  house,  or  other  complicated  struc- 
ture, in  subjective  thought,  and  he  essays  to  put  the 
plan  in  execution  as  a  fixed  thing,  there  is  an  en- 
ergy other  than  the   thinking    demanded,   even   an 


DISTINCTION  IN  KNOWING  THOUGHT   AND   THING.       103 

energizing  which  moves  muscle,  and  applies  hard 
instrumentalities  in  shaping  and  placing  materials 
together ;  and  only  in  overcoming  the  resistance  in 
the  material  elements  can  the  thought-out  plan  be- 
come an  existing  thing.  The  subjective  thinking 
energy  which  made  the  plan  has  been  supplemented 
by  an  executive  will,  whose  energy  has  gone  over 
into  a  controlling  arrangement  of  resisting  elements, 
and  made  them  overtly  to  express  the  plan  as  now 
an  existing  thing.  Subjective  thinking-energy,  sup- 
plemented by  subjective  willing-energy,  has  been  put 
into  essentially,  objective  materials,  and  the  product 
is  an  objective  existence  in  common  for  all  in- 
telligences.—  But  still  further,  one  may  trace  the 
growth  of  a  grain  of  wheat  from  its  first  genninating 
to  its  perfect  maturing,  and  while  the  insight  of  rea- 
son will  detect  a  thought  diffused  through^ the  organ- 
ism of  the  plant,  yet  has  not  the  subjective  thinking 
put  the  ideal  into  the  plant,  nor  has  the  subjective  will 
supplemented  the  thinking  and  forced  the  component 
elements  in  construction,  but  an  actual  living  germ 
has  by  its  native  energy  built  up  the  plant,  and  forced 
the  component  elements  to  their  outer  expression  of 
the  hidden  idea,  which  the  seed  originally  contained. 
Here,  then,  are  three  different  processes  of  thought, 
and  all  have  the  complete  comprehension  of  their  man- 
ifold parts  in  one,  and  are  each  thus  a  true  knowing. 
The  first  has  no  other  energy  than  the  subjective 
thinking,  and  is  pure  thought  only.  The  second  has 
the  energy  of  the  subjective  thinking ;  but  another 


104  KNOWLEDGE   OF  A   CREATOR. 

subjective  energy  than  thinking,  even  an  executive 
willing,  must  overcome  the  resisting  energy  already 
in  the  elements  and  arrange  them  according  to  the 
thought,  and  the  product  is  an  artificial  thing.  The 
third  has  the  ideal  thought  as  seen  already  in  the 
object,  and  which  has  been  put  there  by  a  power  in 
nature  itself  that  has  built  up  the  outer  object  by 
the  inner  working  of  its  own  forces,  and  is  thus  a 
natural  thing.  But  while  all  these  have  true  science, 
whether  of  thought  or  thing,  inasmuch  as  all  have 
the  many  comprehended  in  a  single,  yet  can  these 
objects  be  known  as  created  only  in  a  qualified  sense, 
except  in  the  last  case,  which  is  a  true  creation.  The 
pure  thought  is  a  creation  only  as  we  say  a  creation 
of  the  imagination,  or  the  creations  of  genius ;  the 
artificial  thing  is  a  creation  only  as  a  construction 
from  created  materials  ;  but  the  natural  thing,  though 
in  its  generations  a  propagated  thing,  is  truly  a  cre- 
ated thing,  and  all  its  energies  of  elemental  material, 
and  organizing  instinct  according  to  original  t3'pe,  are 
product  of  absolute  thought  and  w\\\  first  springing 
into  being  from  the  one  All-creating  source. 

A  stated  thought,  no  matter  how  objectively  it  may 
obtrude  itself  upon  the  subjective  consciousness,  as 
in  dreams,  or  hallucination,  or  prolonged  reverie,  is 
no  created  thing ;  nor  should  any  logical  process  in 
positing  its  steps  from  stage  to  stage  be  termed  a 
creating,  since  nothing  is  so  produced  and  stablished 
that  it  can  stand  out  from  the  subject  thinking  and 
become  a  common  possession  for  other  thinking  sub- 


DISTINCTION   IN    KNOWING   THOUGHT    AND   THING.       105 

jects.  A  created  thing  has  not  only  the  imparted 
thought  of  the  creator,  but  superinduced  upon  the 
energy  thinking  is  also  an  energy  imperatively  will- 
ing the  thought  to  stand  in  hard  and  rigid  re-sistance 
to  any  encroachment.  Only  thus  can  the  thought  be- 
come essentially  overt,  and  fill  its  place  and  period 
as  in  a  common  space  and  time  for  other  beholders. 
The  resisting  energy  must  be  in  the  thing  and  con- 
stitute its  very  essence,  and  not  be  merely  the  sub- 
jective energy  of  the  thinking  process.  We  can 
thus  have  no  true  knowledge  of  created  things,  ex- 
cept as  we  comprehend  them  in  the  very  essential 
energies  which  constitute  them  ;  and  we  can  have 
no  true  knowledge  of  their  creator,  except  as  in 
the  things  we  see  the  thought  the  creator  has  put 
there,  and  also  see  this  superinduced  power  that  has 
fixed  the  thought  in  stable  consistency  against  all 
aggression.  It  is  not  created  thing  without  thought, 
for  then  it  could  be  no  object  for  intelligence  ;  nor  is 
it  mere  thought,  for  then  it  could  not  become  com- 
mon object ;  nor  yet  is  it  mere  thought  put  into  hard 
material,  which  would  only  be  a  new  fashioning  of 
old  material ;  but  it  must  be  the  creator's  thought, 
fixed  overtly  for  all  by  the  creator's  imperative  will. 

Other  and  beyond  the  science  of  thought,  and  the 
science  of  artificial  thing,  we  have  here  the  science 
of  nature,  as  essential  thing  in  itself,  and  know  how 
we  know  the  particular  things  of  nature,  and  univer- 
sal nature  itself,  as  one  thing.  The  manifold  in  Sense 
is  sorted  in  the  Judgment  and  comprehended  in  the 


106  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A   CREATOR. 

Reason,  and  is  seen  to  have  already  an  energy  in  pos- 
session and  exertion  which  works  the  unity  above  and 
distinct  from  the  thinking-energy.  The  dewdrop  and 
the  crystal  have  their  expressed  thought,  but  beyond 
the  manifested  ideal  in  their  formation  is  the  essential 
force  ensphering  the  drop  and  solidifying  the  crystal 
angles,  and  completing  the  things  by  an  inner  energy 
different  from  thinking.  And  in  the  same  way  of  an 
inner  force  the  worlds  are  formed,  and  all  worlds  made 
a  universe ;  expressing  a  thought,  but  working  out 
the  expression  by  an  energy  that  supplements  all 
thinking.  The  mechanical  forces  in  nature,  and  the 
organic  forces  in  living  bodies,  work  after  an  ideal ; 
but  their  work  is  other  than  idealizing.  The  Creator 
has  thought,  but  he  has  willed  this  into  overt  exist- 
ence by  an  energy  distinct  from  thought.  A  creator 
of  realities  is  other  than  a  thinker  of  ideals,  and  more 
than  a  former  of  material  bodies,  —  even  an  author  of 
matter  itself. 


CHAPTER    III. 

REASON  KNOWS  THE  CREATOR. 

All  knowing  takes  the  manifold  in  mass,  distributes 
the  particulars  according  to  their  sort,  and  compre- 
hends them  in  a  single  individuality.  The  Sense,  in 
common  experience,  takes   the   manifold ;  the  Judg- 


A  CREATOR  MUST  BE  UNCONDITIONED.      107 

meat  puts  the  particulars  into  their  classified  sorts ; 
and  the  Reason  gets  the  inner  connective  bond  w.hich 
makes  the  sorted  manifold  a  concrete  individual.  But 
we  are  now  to  know  in  the  Reason  only,  and  thus  this 
invariable  process  of  simple  apprehension,  and  assort- 
ing judgment,  and  individualizing  reason,  is  to  be  the 
work  of  reason  exclusive  of  sense  and  logical  under- 
standing, and  must  necessarily  be  quite  peculiar;  and 
this  peculiarity  it  is  naw  the  special  design  to  notice. 
In  the  Rational  Psychology  and  the  Introduction  to 
the  Rational  Cosmology  respectively,  different  meth- 
ods were  takeii  for  attaining  the  Absolute  Being ;  but 
with  no  expression  of  opinion  concerning  the  com- 
parative merits  of  either,  a  third  method  will  here  be 
taken  to  know  the  Absolute  as  Creator  in  the  very 
being  of  Reason  itself. 

1.  A  Creator  must  be  Independent  op  any  Im- 
posed Conditions.  —  Giveti  an  Acorn  in  its  essential 
germ,  and  from  experience  we  infer  a  preceding  oak; 
and  so  also,  given  an  Oak,  and  from  experience  we  in- 
fer a  preceding  acorn.  But  experience  finds  nothing 
in  either  the  acorn  or  the  oak,  which  conditions  the 
successions  that  experience  has  observed ;  and  all 
that  it  can  reveal  is  the  sequence  of  acorns  and  oaks 
as  a  fact  of  as  long  continuance  as  the  history  of  ex- 
perience is  recorded.  It  may  call  one  prior  and  the 
other  successor,  but  this  will  be  wholly  arbitrary,  for 
nothing  distinguishes  in  this  respect  the  one  from  the 
other.     Taking  the  oak  and  looking  back,  the  atom 


108  KNOWLEDGE    OF   A   CREATOR. 

has  been  prior;  and  taking  the  acorn  and  looking 
back,  the  oak  has  been  prior.  Experience  cannot 
teach  which  is  essentially  prior,  nor  that  there  ever 
has  been  a  prius,  nor  say  why  at  all  acorns  and  oaks 
succeed  each  other.  It  gives  the  bare  fact  of  succes- 
sion from  its  history,  and  explains  nothing. 

Experience  under  the  promptings  of  a  rational  en- 
dowment, even  while  the  distinctive  characteristics 
of  such  an  endowment  are  as.  yet  unrecognized,  will 
have  put  a  somewhat  between  the  acorn  and  oak,  or 
in  them  both,  which  will  have  settled  the  conviction 
that  the  succession  observed  has  by  that  somewhat 
been  made  necessary ;  and  it  may  call  that  interposed 
somewhat  the  cause  of  the  succession,  and  attempt, 
perhaps,  thereby,  in  a  quasi  philosophy,  to  explain  the 
fact  of  successive  oaks  and  acorns.  But  in  this  re- 
striction of  all  knowledge  to  experience,  the  necessary 
connective  cause  must  be  remanded  to  experience  for 
its  validity,  and  if  admitted  that  no  sense  can  bring 
it  into  experience,  there  must  still  be  the  supposition 
of  some  sublimated  sense-object,  which  some  finer 
and  nicer  organ  might  seize  and  envisage.  But 
even  if  so  attained,  it  would  be  only  a  fact  found, 
that  this  sublimated  somewhat  succeeded  one  and  pre- 
ceded the  other,  and  could  explain  notliing  of  neces- 
sary connection,  and  only  add  itself  as  a  new  item  in 
the  sequences  which  will  need  its  necessary  connec- 
tion as  much  as  the  mere  sequence  of  oaks  and 
acorns. 

And  admit  now,  which  we  may  hereafter  present 


A  CREATOR  MUST  BE  UNCONDITIONED.      109 

for  clearer  contemplation,  that  the  reason,  as  higher 
faculty,  may  by  its  insight  into  oaks  and  acorns  know 
this  somewhat  we  term  Cause  to  be  wholly  other  than 
any  sense-object,  and  that  it  carries  intrinsically  with  it 
an  efficiency  to  make  the  one  to  come  out  of  the  other, 
this  deeper  reason-insight  might  then  philosophically 
explain  the  necessary  connections ;  but  even  that 
would  only  so  far  be  expounding  nature,  and  would 
be  no  knowledge  of  how  such  eflSciency  came  into 
nature,  nor  could  at  all  teach  how  oaks  and  acorns 
came  into  being,  or  any  other  objects  in  nature,  that 
they  should  need  necessary  connecting  causes.  Even 
should  reason  be  able  to  go  further,  and  see  in  the 
oak  or  the  acorn  that  which  determined  that  this  and 
not  the  other  must  be  prior,  this  would  not  explain 
how  that  prior  came  to  be,  nor  satisfy  the  reason, 
whether  the  prior  were  oak  or  acorn,  that  such  deter- 
mined prior  made  both  itself  and  all  the  others.  We 
should  herein  get  the  philosophy  of  nature,  but  should 
not  by  anything  in  nature  so  get  the  knowledge  of 
nature's  Creator. 

An  assumed  first  cause  must  still  be  conditioned 
cause,  in  the  same  way  that  an  assumed  first  acorn 
must  be  conditioned  to  produce  an  oak  and  not  a  chest- 
nut, or  an  assumed  first  oak  must  be  conditioned  to 
bear  acorns  and  not  chestnuts.  What  is  to  come  from 
the  cause  must  necessarily  be  already  essential  in  the 
cause,  and  this  as  truly  in  a  first  as  in  any  successor 
of  the  series.  The  question  of  creation  is.  How  the 
first  can  begin  to  be?  and  if  conditions  are  imposed 


110  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A    CREATOR. 

upon  it,  it  is  creature,  and  not  creator.  And  the  same 
is  true  of  substantial  being  standing  under  and  con- 
ditioning the  qualities.  When  the  steaDi  has  been 
condensed  to  water,  and  the  water  again  changed  in 
congelation  to  ice,  the  respective  qualities  have  been 
conditioned  in  their  substances,  and  whichever  way 
we  follow  the  change,  we  must  put  under  the  new 
qualities  the  new  substantial  ground;  but  the  ques- 
tion now  is.  How  substance  itself  begins  to  be  ?  If 
it  have  already  conditions  under  it,  it  is  created  sub- 
stance, and  not  creator  of  substance.  Both  in  assumed 
first  cause  and  first  substance  the  conditions  are  al- 
ready there,  forcing  us  to  go  higher ;  but  experience 
cannot  transcend  conditions,  and  hence  no  empirical 
data  can  give  a  creator  in  the  conclusion. 

2.  The  Finite  Reason  can  from  Itself  know  the 
Universal.  —  With  no  sense-content,  and  no  conclud- 
ing in  logical  judgments  from  empirical  data,  the  pure 
reason-knowing  is  solely  from  itself.  Looking  into  its 
own  being,  it  determines  immediately  from  what  it 
knows  in  itself  what  also  must  be  conditional  that 
other  beings  may  be  known.  The  reason-knowing  is 
not  looking  on  and  around,  but  in  and  through,  and 
thus  is  not  Apprehension,  but  Insight.  When  sense- 
objects  are  given,  it  sees  in  them  that  space  and  time 
are  conditional  that  they  themselves  may  be ;  and 
when  sense-objects  are  connected  in  things  and  their 
changes  to  a  series  of  events,  it  sees  in  them  that  sub- 
stantial and  causal  forces  are  conditional   that   such 


REASON   KNOWS   THtJ    UNIVERSAL.  -    111 

ordered  connections  should  be.  But  when  no  sense- 
objects  are  given,  and  no  conditions  of  space  and  time 
or  substantial  and  causal  forces  are  determined  by 
any  insight,  there  is  a  sphere  of  knowing  other  than 
that  which  belongs  to  space  and  time,  substances  and 
causes,  viz.,  a  pure  reason-sphere  in  which  the  con- 
ditions are  attained  solely  by  the  finite  reason  having 
selfinsight.  The  reason  thus  knows  solely  in  reason's 
own  light ;  and  in  this  sphere  it  is  that  the  finite  rea- 
son knows  the  Universal  Reason. 

Finite  reason  standing  alone  in  its  own  individuality 
has  its  peculiar  measure,  and  so  its  self-insight  has  its 
peculiar  clearness,  compass,  and  systematic  consisten- 
cy, and  so,  too,  each  finite  intelligence  has  knowl- 
edge peculiarly  his  own,  and  not  another's,  and  where- 
in the  knowing  is  relative  to  himself,  and  is  not 
properly  universal.  Thus  there  is  a  good  meaning  in 
which  mathematic  or  philosophy  or  spiritual  truth  is 
individual,  and  peculiar  to  each  particular  conscious 
insight.  But  there  is  a  higher  and  equally  valid 
meaning,  which  excludes  all  individual  peculiarity, 
and  in  which  there  is  but  one  mathematic,  one  philoso- 
phy, one  truth  for  every  rational  mind.  In  such  ac- 
ceptation there  is  no  particular  appropriation,  but 
the  known  truth  is  universal.  Individuality  stands  in 
some  other  ground  than  the  being  of  rationality,  for 
there  is  one  reason  common  to  all  humanity.  Indi- 
vidual finite  reason,  looking  into  itself,  and  knowing 
its  own  peculiarities,  is  competent  to  see  in  itself  also 
a  universal ;  and  to  know  that  conditional  for  its  valid 


112  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A   CREATOR. 

knowing,  besides  the  finite  and  relative  reason  which 
is  its  own,  there  must  be  a. Universal  Reason  which  is 
not  its  own,  but  only  as  it  is  common  to  all. 

In  this  Universal  Reason,  the  finite  and  individual 
reason  can  see,  there  must  be  the  ground  and  sou^'ce  of 
all  truth.  Each  mind's  truth  must  have,  for  its  validity 
in  the  knovving,  that  which  is  true  in  Universal  Rea- 
son. Only  in  this  universal  can  anything  particular 
be  stable.  No  individual  reason  can  be  allowed  to 
stand  indifferent  to,  and  much  less  in  opposition  to, 
the  Universal ;  for  what  is  not  positively  for,  is  essen- 
tially against  Universal  Reason,  and  in  that  has  be- 
come unreason,  and  must  be  everywhere  repudiated 
and  rejected  by  reason.  But  that  any  known  truth 
stands  full  in  the  Universal  Reason  is  sufficient  for  its 
validity.  The  last  and  highest  reason  for  the  validity 
of  any  knowing  is,  that  what  it  knows  is  Universally 
reasonable.  All  demonstration  is  defective  which 
is  not  carried  back  to  its  root  in  Universal  Reason ; 
and  all  testimony  is  insufficient  to  give  knowledge  to 
faith,  till  the  testimony  is  seen  to  be  squarely  in 
accordance  with  that  reason  which  is  one  for  all. 
Individual  mind  thus  knows  the  Universal  mind  ; 
that  it  is  ;  what  it  is,  in  attribute  and  essential  perfec- 
tion, though  no  finite  can  measure  the  fulness  of  the 
Universal.  So  it  is  that  inspiration  affirms  we  "  know 
the  deep  things  of  God  "  by  the  spirit  given  to  us.  Not 
in  that  God-consciousness  in  which  God  is  illumined 
to  himself,  but  in  our  endowment  of  reason  we  see 


THE  UNIVERSAL  REASON  A  PERSON.       113 

the  being  of  the   Godhead.     The   individual  human 
knows  from  within  himse-lf  the  Divine  Universal. 

3.  The  Universal  Reason  is  a  Person.  —  All 
complete  knowledge  involves  the  taking  of  manifold 
elements,  separating  and  sorting  them,  and  finally  com- 
prehending them  in  Unity.  So  the  individual  finite 
reason,  if  at  all,  must  know  the  Universal  Reason ; 
and  the  finite  may  so  know  the  Universal  as  to  see  in 
it  that  the  Universal  must  be  personal.  The  following 
successive  positions,  carefully  and  intelligently  taken, 
will  carry  the  insight  from  Reason  in  Universality  to 
Reason  as  a  Person. 

Universal  Reason  must  contain  all  elementary  truth, 
and  all  assortments  possible  of  the  Universal  Elements, 
and  all  consistent  comprehensions  of  sorted  particulars 
in  Unity  ;  and  in  this  the  Universal  Reason  has  in 
possession  all  possible  Ideas.  The  original  Ideas  are 
subjective  in  Reason,  and  so  uncommunicated,  and  in 
themselves  incommunicable. 

In  such  origination  of  Ideas,  Reason  is  essentially 
artistic,  and  cannot  be  satisfied  with  a  solitary  per- 
petual gaze  upon  its  subjective  Ideas,  but  must  have 
a  calm  urgency  towards  expressing  them.  And  also, 
in  such  origination,  Reason  is  essentially  good,  and 
must  have  a  loving  interest  in  communicating  the 
Ideas.  Such  urgency  and  interest  must  induce  an 
ethical  behest  for  their  overt  manifestation ;  and  for 
this,  Reason  must  itself  be  competent,  or  as  unsatisfied 
it  will  become  unreason. 
8 


114  KNOWLEDGE   OF  A   CREATOR. 

An  actual  expression  including  communication  of 
ideas  involves  both  Idea  set  forth  and  Idea  taken,  and 
thus  a  reason-giving  and  a  reason-receiving, and  so  there 
must  be  several  rational  beings,  and  each  apprehend- 
ing the  Idea  in  common,  and  which  alone  can  constitute 
a  standing  together  in  community.  Intelligent  recipi- 
ents of  the  original  Ideas  must,  therefore,  be  brought 
into  being  in  the  likeness  of  the  Universal  Reason, 
and  therein  competent  to  participate  in  the  conscious 
possession  of  the  thoughts  of  Universal  Reason. 

These  severally  existing  intelligences  cannot  com- 
mune with  the  Universal  Reason  while  the  original 
Ideas  remain  in  subjective  secrecy,  but  the  Ideas  must 
be  set  forth  in  an  existing,  outstanding  Universe ;  and 
while  tiie  intelligences  must  be  in  the  image  of  Uni- 
versal Reason,  the  stable  existences  must  also  be  in  the 
likeness  of  the  original  Ideas ;  and  in  this  whole  work 
we  shall  have  the  complex  Universe  in  the  two  worlds 
of  matter  and  of  mind,  in  which  Universal  Reason  has 
expressed  the  Ideas,  and  to  which  the  constituted 
intelHgences  come  in  participation,  and  thereby  the 
Universal  Reason  and  the  constituted  intelligences 
may  stand  together  in  satisfactory  communion. 

The  finite  reason  sees  in  such  Universal  Reason 
complete  self-possession  and  self-sufficiency.  All  pos- 
sible resources  are  within  it,  and  it  can  be  helped  or 
hindered  by  nothing  without.  It  stands  to  itself 
throughout  in  perfect  freedom.  No  force  can  compel, 
no  want  can  constrain,  no  master  can  coerce  its  move- 
ment.    No  necessity  can  apply  to  it  a  physical  must; 


PERSONALITY  OF  REASON  ABSOLUTE.       115 

nor  authority  impose  upon  it  a  peremptory  ehall;  and 
only  the  ought,  as  that  which  is  due  to  its  own  dignity, 
can  prompt  and  guide  its  agency ;  and  so  its  work  is 
not  at  all  what  it  must,  or  what  it  shall,  but  solely 
what  it  will  accomplish.  Such  inner  disposing  of  all 
inherent  possessing  and  outer  communicating  is  Will 
IN  Liberty;  and  the  whole  is  comprehensively  held 
within  its  own  law  oF  freedom.  Its  spring  to  action 
and  its  end  of  action  are  both  wholly  within  itself,  and 
its  being  and  doing  is  alone  in  its  Eternal  reasonable- 
ness. It  summons  its  powers  in  requisition  for  its 
own  Excellency's  sake,  and  sends  them  to  the  attain- 
ment of  its  own  honor;  and  thus  its  own  mandate, 
sounding  through  its  whole  being,  makes  it  eminently 
and  discriminatingly  to  be  Person.  In  this  view  we 
are  henceforth  to  speak  of  Reason  as  He  and  not  It. 

4.  The  Peesonality  of  Reason  is  also  Absolute. 
—  "  He  is  before  all  things,  and  by  him  all  things  con- 
sist," and  thus  nothing  outside  of  him  can  limit,  con- 
strain, or  in  any  way  impose  conditions  upon  him ; 
and  in  this  meaning  it  is  that  we  say  the  Person  of 
Reason  is  Absolute.  He  is  absolved  from  all  coaction 
from  evefy  quarter.  The  Universe  depends  upon 
him,  but  has  no  reagencies  holding  him  under  any 
duress.  His  absoluteness  relates  to  a  variety  of 
particulars  which  may  be  separately  considered,  ac- 
cording to  their  peculiarities.  His  being  is  absolute, 
as  wholly  underived  and  independent.  His  sovereignty/ 
is  absolute,  as  amenable  to  no  authority.     His  agency 


116  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A   CREATOR. 

is  absolute,  as  beyond  all  force.  His  blessedness  is 
absolute,  as  beyond  all  possible  perturbation.  We 
will  subject  these  particulars  severally  to  the  insight 
of  reason  for  its  abundant  confirmation.  Carefully 
and  clearly  contemplated,  the  absoluteness  of  Uni- 
versal Reason  in  these  respects  cannot  have  the 
shadow  of  a  doubt. 

1.  His  Being  is  Absolute.  It  is  impossible  to  sup- 
pose a  source  from  whence  Reason  should  be  derived. 
If  Reason  once  was  not,  then  only  unreason  was,  and  the 
only  source  whence  Reason  could  come  would  be  the 
absurdity  of  his  origin  from  unreason.  He  cannot  be 
supposed  not  to  be.  To  say  that  reason  is  not,  would 
involve  the  necessity  that  still  reason  should  be,  in 
order  that  the  declaration  might  have  any  true  mean- 
ing. To  say  that  once  He  might  not  have  been,  is  to 
suppose  that  his  opposite  must  then  have  been ;  and 
the  opposite  of  reason  cannot  be  supposed  without 
at  the  same  time  supposing  reason  as  the  determiner 
of  what  his  opposite  is. 

Again,  Reason  is  not  on  account  of  something  else, 
nor  by  the  help  of  something  else,  nor  through  the 
sufferance  of  something  else.  However  others  may 
be,  or  whether  others  be  or  not  be,  yet  reason  must 
be ;  for  his  supposed  non-being  is  an  impossibility, 
inasmuch  as,  if  his  non-being  were  affirmed  to  be  true, 
this  very  truth  would  still  confirm  that  he  is.  The 
truths  which  the  light  of  reason  gives  are  no  products 
of  power,  but  are  rndependent  of  power,  and  are  liable 
to   no   interference    from   power,   and    these    truths 


PERSONALITY  OF  REASON  ABSOLUTE.       117 

which  are  beyond  all  power,  and  by  which  all  power 
must  be  controlled,  cannot  themselves  be  but  as 
reason  also  is. 

We  say,  therefore,  of  the  Universal  Reason,  that  he  is 
self-existent,  not  in  the  acceptation  that  his  self  makes 
his  existence,  but  that  being  is  so  necessarily  his  that 
no  applied  power  can  make  him  not  to  be.  Nor  are 
these  absurdities,  from  any  supposition  of  the  non- 
being  of  reason,  the  result  of  any  logical  illusion,  for 
it  is  not  logic  that  has  at  all  been  here  in  use,  and 
only  the  insight  of  reason ;  so  that  the  function  of 
reason  itself  must  be  perverted  to  absurdities  and 
contradictions  before  it  can  be  admitted  that  the 
being  of  reason  is  dependent  on  anything.  That 
there  is  reason  for  anything,  yea,  that  there  is  reason 
for  doubting  everything,  still  leaves  it  impossible  to 
doubt  that  reason  himself  is.  The  Absoluteness  of 
the  being  of  Reason  is  thus  guarded  on  all  sides  by 
endless  absurdities  and  impossibilities  that  he  should 
not  be.     His  appropriate  name  is,  "  I  am." 

2.  His  Sovereignty  is  Absolute.  Absolute  sovereignty 
does  not  imply  arbitrary  sovereignty.  Sovereignty  im- 
ports Authority,  and  this  is  the  same  as  being  author- 
ized, or  rightly  founded.  We  cannot  therefore  say  of 
the  sovereignty,  of  Universal  Reason,  what  we  have 
just  shown  of  his  being,  that  it  is  every  way  un- 
limited and  underived ;  for  that  would  involve  the 
intrinsic  absurdity  of  Authority  unauthorized.  ,  Such 
an  Absolute  would  admit  of  going  opposite  ways,  and 
to   opposite   ends,  and  yet   be   Authority  still ;   and 


118  KNOWLEDGE    OF   A    CREATOR. 

which  can  be  nothing  but  the  absurdity  of  Arbitrary 
Authority.  Authority  must  be  authorized  ;  supported 
and  justified  by  reason ;  hence  of  authority  we  cannot 
say,  as  we  said  of  being,  that  Universal  Reason  is 
beyond  all  conditioning  control.  Still  the  sovereign 
authority  is  Absolute  when  it  rests  only  in  the  being 
of  reason  himself. 

A  logical  process  to  get  ultimate  Authority  for 
Sovereignty  would  involve  necessary  absurdity  ;  for 
it  would  derive  Authority  from  a  source  that  would 
still  come  from  another,  and  no  assumed  last  source 
could  be  ultimate.  But  the  Universal  Reason  knows 
his  right  to  reign  in  sovereignty  from  just  what  he  is 
in  his  own  being.  Knowing  himself,  he  knows  it  is 
his  to  be  sovereign,  and  not  subject.  What  he  is,  in 
his  conscious  intrinsic  excellency,  authorizes  him  to 
take  the  throne  and  hold  the  sceptre,  and  absolves 
him  from  all  allegiance  to  any  other  sovereignty.  He 
truly  reigns  in  his  own  right,  and  cannot  rightly 
alienate  his  sovereignty.  Finite  reason,  superinduced 
upon  sensibility,  legitimately  reigns  sovereign  over 
appetite ;  but  legitmate  as  such  Authority  is,  it  can- 
not be  said  to  be  Absolute.  The  Supreme  Reason 
must  have  absolute  sway  when  the  finite  fails,  and 
only  where  the  finite  is  the  same  as  the  Absolute  are 
they  concurrent.  The  Supreme  is  ultimate,  and  thus 
an  imperative  that  finds  no  outer  source"  to  give  to  it 
authority,  and  no  higher  right  to  take  it  away.  The 
Supreme  Reason  has  no  sensibility  to  gratify,  but  a 
high  behest  to  fulfil;  and  knowing  what  is  due  to 


PERSONALITY  OF  REASON  ABSOLUTE.      119 

himself,  he  is  conditioned  from  within  his  own  being, 
and  absolved  from  all  else ;  and  such  is  Absolute 
Sovereignty. 

3.  The  Agency  is  Absolute.  No  part,  nor  the  whole 
of  universal  Force  can  act  unconditionally.  It  cannot 
absolve  itself  from  mechanical  necessities.  The  equiv- 
alence of  forces,  and  the  conservation  of  force,  deter- 
mine that  all  motion  must  be  as  already  moved,  and 
in  force  there  can  be  no  first  mover,  as  spontaneous 
originator  of  movement..  All  movement  i&  conditioned 
to  some  previous  motion.  But  the  universal  reason 
can  begin  action  from  himself.  Without  force,  and. 
even  against  force  when  force  is,  and  thus  wholly 
independent  of  all  constraint,  the  reason  can  see  in 
himself  what  is  due  to  himself,  and  can  start  and 
guide  his  action  accordingly.  This  inner  behest, 
that  the  reason  should  act  for  his  own  worthiness' 
sake,  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  for  ultimate  reason 
seen  in  himself,  gives  occasion  for  action  without 
another  to  move  to  action,  and  thus  to  put  forth 
action  that  shall  make  both  force  and  motion  to  be- 
gin. Action  from  a  conscious  inner  claim  is  self- 
action  ;  personal  action  ;  voluntary  action ;  and  when  it 
can  come  from  no  higher  claim  than  his  own  reason, 
it  is  Absolute  Agency.  Such  action  is  purely  spirit- 
ual, and  such  agent  is  Absolute  Spirit. 

4.  The  Absolute  Spirit  is  Absolutely  blessed.  It  is 
happiness  to  have  a  constitutional  sensibility,  and  this 
sensibility  gratified.  But  no  happiness  can  be  abso- 
lute.    It  depends  on  condition  of  constitufion,  and 


120  KNOWLEGGE   OF   A   CREATOR. 

congenial  applications  to  it,  and  is  thus  necessarily 
a  thing  made,  and  must  be  as  it  happens  to  be  made. 
Nothing  of  happiness  can  be  properly  blessedness; 
much  less  absolute  blessedness.  Blessedness  be- 
longs to  nothing  but  Reason,  and  is  found  only  in 
the  satisfying  of  the  inward  behest  of  reason.  Grati- 
fied sensibility  is  happiness;  fulfilled  imperative  is 
righteousness,  and  as  a  fixed  disposition  it  is  holi- 
ness ;  and  steadfast  holiness  may  be  known  as  con- 
scious Blessedness.  It  has  its  own  approbation,  and 
the  known  approbation  of  reason  everywhere. 
,  But  human  blessedness  is  conditioned  and  limited 
many  ways.  Even  when  the  holiness  regulating  ap- 
petite is  persistent,  the  bliss  has  no  tranquil  security. 
The  sentient  appetite  tends  to  excess,  and  must  per- 
petually be  watched  and  guarded.  Such  a  militant 
state  cannot  have  unalloyed  blessedness,  even  in 
persevering  holiness.  Even  as  angelic  spirit,  with 
no  sentient  craving,  there  is  still  the  opening  for 
temptation,  from  spiritual  excesses  and  iniquities,  to 
ambition,  pride,  envy,  hatred,  so  that  an  angel  must 
guard  his  virtue  and  perpetually  rule  his  spirit,  and 
can  never  reach  a  state  of  unasking  tranquillity  in  his 
holiness. 

Not  thus  with  the  Supreme  Spirit.  He  has  per- 
petual integrity,  security,  and  serenity.  There  is  to 
him  no  possibility  of  assault  from  without  or  from 
within.  Nothing  better  to  him  can  be  than  fulfilling 
the  claims  of  reason  ;  truly  glorifying  himself.  He, 
therefore,  "  cannot  be  tempted  of  evil."     He  cannot 


THE   ABSOLUTE   CREATOR   TRIUNE.  121 

turn  to  any  good  that  shall  to  him  be  so  good  as  the 
maintaining  of  his  integrity,  and  thus  ever  maintain- 
ing and  ever  being  reason.  He  is  above  all  possible 
conflicting  interferences,  and  is,  therefore,  Absolutely 
serene  and  tranquil  in  holiness. 

The  only  conceivable  source  for  disturbance  is  in 
the  sin  and  suffering  of  his  creatures.  His  revealed 
representation  of  himself  is  as  if  affected  thereby 
disagreeably ;  even  as  grieved,  pained,  and  angry. 
These  representations  are  in  conformity  with  human 
conceptions  in  like  cases,  but  do  not  betoken  divine 
infirmity  and  distressing  inner  commotion.  Every, 
feeling  is  still  prompted  by  reason,  and  in  its  reason- 
ableness has  security  for  unalloyed  blessedness. 

5.  The  Absolute  Creator  is  Triune.  —  The  Ab- 
solute Reason  knowing  the  universal  in  his  thought, 
and  therein  possessing  the  Universe  in  Idea,  has 
three  distinct  agencies  in  operation.  The  univer- 
sal has  been  taken  in  its  manifoldness ;  lias  also  been 
separately  arranged  according  to  its  elementary  sorts ; 
and  the  sorted  particulars  have  been  further  grasped 
in  unity.  There  can  in  no  other  method  be  compre- 
hensive thought,  for  this  process  is  that  of  rational 
comprehension.  Essentially  in  reason  there  are  three 
subsistent  agencies,  and  these  unite  in  giving  to 
reason  its  own  determinations,  and  the  very  essence 
of  reason  is  this  threefold  acting.  But  so  projecting 
the  Universal  Plan,  or  originating  the  Universal  Idea, 
is  not  properly  the  creating  of  the  Universe.     The 


122  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A   CREATOR. 

Idea  must  be  in  the  Creator  preliminary  to  bis  creat- 
ing, but  the  expressing  the  Idea  in  overt,  stable  con- 
sistency, is  alone  the  proper  creating  work. 

Strict  simplicity  can  neither  think  nor  will. 
Thought  involves  comprehension  of  ordered  ele- 
ments, and  Will  involves  disposition  relative  to  ra- 
tional ends,  and  so  neither  thinking  nor  willing  can 
consist  with  pure  simplicity.  We  cannot  think  of, 
reason  itself  cannot  know,  a  thought  or  a  will  which 
is  solely  simple.  If,  then,  the  agency  which  plans  an 
ideal  universe  cannot  be  in  simplicity,  more  emphati- 
cally may  we  say  that  the  agency  which  is  to  give 
rigid  reality  to  the  Idea  cannot  be  simple.  The 
agency  must  be  several,  and  the  products  must  have 
their  severality ;  and  yet  the  agency  must  also  be 
joint  as  well  as  several,  and  the  product  must  be  a 
unit  of  severalities.  We  can  bring  neither  a  creat- 
ing work  nor  a  created  world  into  any  mode  of  being 
known,  except  as  in  the  creating  and  creation  there 
be  a  manifold  in  Unity.  And  already  in  the  essence 
of  Absolute  Eeason  we  have  found  the  severality 
and  the  unity  of  Agency  which  are  necessary  con- 
ditions for  the  creative  work.  The  attainment  of 
the  Universal  Idea  in  its  comprehension  required 
three  agencies,  and  the  setting  of  the  idea  into  fixed 
reality  will  demand  the  same  agencies. 

The  Idea  is  already  in  actual  thought,  and  the  Will 
which  perpetually  maintains  the  actual  thought,  as 
the  archetype  of  the  universe,  is  one  constant,  con- 
scious,  free    activity.     This   is   the    superintending, 


THE   ABSOLUTE   CREATOR   TRIUNE.  123 

guiding,  authoritative  agency  of  the  whole  creative 
process,  and  may  be  known  as  the  Paternal  Activity. 
It  upholds,  and  rests  in  the  upheld  idea,  and  with 
this  agency  alone,  all  is  hidden  and  secret  in  the 
counsels  of  the  originally  planning  agencies. 

Creation  is  an  outer  manifestation  of  this  inner 
plan,  and  giving  to  every  element  of  it  its  particu- 
lar expression.  The  idea  as  thought  is  to  be  stif- 
fened and  hardened  in  the  expression  to  an  impene- 
trable existence,  and  to  such  end  an  overt  energizing 
must  go  forth  into  it,  which  shall  fix  the  elements 
fast  into  permanent  things.  A  distinct  conscious 
Will  must  enter  the  Idea,  and  while  flexible  as 
thought,  must  give  the  Idea  exact  expression  which 
shall  also  be  impervious  to  any  other  agency,  and 
make  the  Idea  "stand  fast"  in  rigid  consistency.  This 
energizing  will  is  a  constant,  conscious,  frea  activity, 
distinct  from  the  thought-activity  which  states  the 
idea,  and  yet  it  is  its  exact  counterpart  in  every  ele- 
ment of  the  idea,  and  may  be  known  as  Logos,  Word, 
or  Son,  "  by  which  the  Father  made  the  worlds." 

But  the  rigid  realities,  all  made  to  exactly  express 
the  elemental  thoughts  in  the  idea,  must  further  be  con- 
nected through  and  through  in  comprehensive  unity. 
An  energy  aside  from  that  which  makes  them  stead- 
fast must  move  them  together  in  concrete  consistency 
and  order  overtly,  as  the  plan  is  connected  and  con- 
sistent innerly ;  and  which,  too,  must  be  a  constant, 
conscious,  free  acting,  in  joint  fellowship  with  the 
above   idealizing   and    realizing   agencies,  fashioning 


124  KNOWLEDGE   OF   A    CREATOR. 

the  chaotic  material  to  a  comprehensive  universal 
Cosmos.  This  last  forming  agency  may  be  known 
as  Holy  Spirit. 

Each  of  these  separate  agencies  has  its  own  respec- 
tive conscious  Will ;  the  wills  distinct,  but  the  con- 
sciousness in  each  a  peculiar  appropriation  to  itself 
from  the  one  consciousness  in  Absolute  Reason  ;  and 
such  conscious  will  can  be  named  by  nothing  so 
appropriate  as  Person.  Yet  while  distinct  in  free 
activity,  they  are  not  distinct  in  their  substantial 
being,  for  they  are  the  three  subsistent  agencies  we 
have  already  seen  to  be  essentially  in  Reafeon  itself, 
and  go  to  the  completion  of  its  one  being.  Absolute 
Reason  is  essentially  tlireefold,  and  as  Creating  Rea- 
son necessarily  in  threefold  personality.  The  Cre- 
ating Spirit  so  knows  his  creating,  since  thus  is  it  in 
conformity  with  his  essential  rationality.  Conscious 
free  idealizing  is  first,  and  all-controlling :  conscious 
free  realizing  is  second,  and  all-expressing :  conscious 
free  individualizing  is  third,  and  all-comprehending: 
and  only  as  human  reason  can  see  the  divine  idea  in 
the  real,  and  this  in  its  real  comprehension,  can  man 
know  either  the  Creator  or  his  creation.  Divine 
Reason  knows  concurrently  with  his  creative  work; 
the  human  knows  in  the  work  the  thought  and  will 
of  the  Creator.  The  Father,  whom  none  seeth,  has 
the  hidden  ideal;  the  "  Word,  with  God  and  was 
God,"  expresses  the  ideal  in  reality ;  and  the  Holy 
Spirit  fashions  the  worlds  and  binds  them  in  a  uni- 
verse,  and   so   "  garnishes   the   heavens."     Creation, 


THEISM   DISTINGUISHED   FROM   PANTHEISM.  125 

correctly  contemplated  as  from  the  Absolute  Reason 
in  essential  triunity,  loses  its  mystery,  but  augments 
its  majesty,  in  its  pure  rationality. 

6.  Theism  distinct  from  all  Forms  of  Pantheism. 
—  Absolute  Personality  recognized  will  give  Theism, 
and  exclude  Pantheism,  no  matter  what  the  connec- 
tions of  the  parts  of  the  universe  to  each  other,  nor 
how  directly  the  universe  may  come  from  the  Crea- 
tor. The  product  of  the  person  will  be  other  than 
the  person,  and  the  personality  of  the  Maker  as  Abso- 
lute will  exclude  all  external  conditioning  and  deri- 
vation ;  and  thus  on  the  one  hand  the  creation  will 
be  a  really  objective  existence,  and  on  the  other  the 
Creator  will  be  true  Deity.  But  all  methods  of  devel- 
ment,  or  evolution,  will  involve  Pantheism  and  exclude 
Theism.  The  unfolding  in  any  way  is  but  a  gradual 
disclosure  of  the  one  already  existing  thing ;  and  be- 
fore the  development,  the  one  is  the  All,  and  after  the 
development,  the  All  is  still  the  one  ;  and  neither  the 
one  nor  the  all  can  get  any  distinction  of  being.  When 
the  one  absorbs  the  All,  it  will  properly  be  termed 
Pantheism :  and  when  the  All  hides  the  one,  it  will 
more  properly  be  termed  Pancosmism ;  but  in  each 
case  the  whole  is  without  proper  Personality,  and  is 
virtually  Atheism. 

There  are  two  general  forms  of  Pantheism,  each 
having  some  modifications,  but  all  will  be  sufficiently 
noted  in  making  the  general  discrimination.  One 
comes  from  logically  following  out  physical  law,  and 


126  KNOWLEDGE   OP   A   CREATOR. 

may  be  known  as  logical  or  physical  Pantheism ;  the 
other  comes  from  finding  a  perpetual  dialectic  in  all 
progressive  reasoning,  and  striving  to  overcome  this 
by  a  transcendental  synthesis,  and  which  may  be 
known  as  dialectical  or  transcendental  Pantheism. 

The  Jirst  form  recognizes  the  uniformities  and  in. 
variable  sequences  of  experience,  and  logically  infers 
the  future  from  the  past,  and  the  distant  from  the 
nearer  observation,  and  concludes  nature  to  be  a 
perpetual  orderly  series  of  concomitant  and  succes- 
sive events,  and  all  conditioned  in  their  connections 
by  what  precedes  to  what  must  infallibly  succeed. 
The  material  world  has  its  connected  physical  causes 
and  effects,  and  the  linked  series  are  inviolate,  while 
the  mental  world,  in  its  intellectual,  sentient,  and 
practical  life,  has  its  own  history  of  passing  events 
connected  by  motives  and  moral  influences,  which 
make  the  whole  to  be  strictly  uniform  and  rigidly 
inviolate.  Matter  and  mind  go  on  in  their  counter- 
part series,  and  together  make  a  universe  of  concur- 
rent events  by  which  all  sentient  experience  has  its 
regular  laws,  uniformly  rewarding  and  punishing  as 
the  laws  are  kept  or  violated.  Often  the  violation 
and  penal  result  are  seen  to  be  the  direct  steps  to  a 
further  advance,  and  the  sins  and  retributions  are 
really  as  necessary  means  of  progress  and  coming 
melioration  as  the  virtues  and  rewards.  An  unerring 
power  is  everywhere  silently  and  constantly  at  work, 
and  which  no  man  really  helps  or  hinders,  and  which 
as  truly  works  out  human  destiny  as  material  changes; 


^  OF   THE        ^y 

UlfI7ERSIT 

THEISM   DISTINGUISHED   FROM   PANTH^|P>f  ^    tSIf         ^  k 

and  man's  wisdom  is,  so  far  as  practicable,  to  tal 
and  work  with  it,  and  always  to  rejoice  in  it. 

All  anxiety,  about  supernatural  agencies  is  but  a 
weak  superstition,  leading  invariably  to  philosophical, 
social,  and  moral  perversions.  There  is  no  God  out 
of  Nature  ;  and  only  a  God  in  Nature,  wisely  work- 
ing all  nature  onward  in  the  track  of  destiny.  No 
personality  who  begins  and  consummates  can  be  dis- 
covered ;  the  inner  power  works  out  the  develop- 
ment. 

The  second  form  of  Pantheism  is  exceedingly  pro- 
found and  thorough  in  its  dialectical  process.  It 
finds  thought  in  its  very  spring  and  source  to  be 
dialectical,  having  a  necessary  antithesis  in  its  deep- 
est notion.  All  Affirmation  is  as  truly  and  necessarily 
also  Negation  in  its  opposite  aspect,  and  whatever 
position  be  taken,  the  immediate  counter-movement 
must  pass  onward  to  its  own  Negation.  To  prevent 
direct  self-contradiction  and  thus  absolute  scepti- 
cism, or  rather  utter  nescience,  the  reason  must  be 
brought  into  see  in  its  higher  light,  that  the  antithetic 
negation  is  not  a  direct  denial  nullifying  the  old 
position,  but  in  fact  an  opening  tO  a  common  syn- 
thesis between  them,  wherein  they  come  together 
and  close  themselves  in  higher  and  richer  unity 
than  before.  This  new  position  is  then  at  once  a 
spring  to  a  new  form  of  negation,  and  this  to  a  tran- 
scendental synthesis  enriched  by  retaining  all  the 
former;  and  thus  on,  by  a  perpetual  repetition  of 
new  outlays  and  richer  incomes,  till  the  cycle  comes 


128  KNOWLEDGE    OF  A   CREATOR. 

round  into  itself;  and  then  afterwards  opens  into  a 
broader  circuit,  till  the  last  cycle  of  all  enclosed 
cycles,  when  the  reason  is  brought  face  to  face  with 
itself,  in  divine  self-consciousness  and  universal  being. 

This  process  of  Absolute  Thought  is  held  to  be  a 
true  exposition  of  the  eternal  essence  antecedent  to 
and  in  the  work  of  creation,  and  giving  the  very 
fibres  of  tlie  universe,  aromd  and  upon  which  all 
of  nature  and  of  humanity  are  set.  Thought  is  all 
that  is  —  the  highest  and  only  knowledge  and  reality. 
It  is  God  and  the  Universe  ;  God  knowing  himself,  in 
thinking  the  universe.  And  here  the  error  is  not  in 
the  dialectical  process,  or  the  transcendental  order  of 
the  higher  rational  logic  ;  for  that  is  the  most  thor- 
ough, profound,  and  rigidly  conclusive  possible.  But 
it  makes  the  thinking  to  be  all.  God  and  the  universe 
are  in  the  thinking,  and  there  is  neither  Creator  nor 
created  but  in  the  thought.  There  is  no  overt  agen- 
cy that  forms  and  fixes  a  solid  world  on  these  thought- 
fibres,  and  holds  it  there  palpably  and  overtly,  as  the 
expression  of  the  thought  and  the  manifestation  of 
the  will  a:id  wisdom  of  the  Thinker.  It  is  Absolute 
Thought  in  self-development ;  the  world-spirit,  solely 
intellectual  spirit,  thinking  itself  into  a  universe,  and 
thereby  coming  to  the  knowledge  of  itself  in  this 
universal  knowledge  ;  a  complete  Pantheistic  Thought- 
development. 

To  meet  and  demolish  the  first  form  of  Pantheism 
demands  a  clearing  of  the  mind  from  all  the  illusions 
of  sense  and  experience,  when  attempting  to  carry 


THEISM  DISTINGUISHED   FROM  PANTHEISM.  129 

our  knowledge  by  them  over  into  the  region  of  the 
supernatural.  If  all  philosophy  is  exhausted  in  ex- 
amining nature,  and  only  assuming  that  the  observed 
order  of  facts  in  nature  is  the  sole  warrant  for 
supposing  any  intrinsic  connections  in  nature,  then 
must  nature's  ongoing  be  the  ultimate  to  us,  and  the. 
end  of  logic  is,  that  the  only  God  is  nature.  But 
when  we  have  known  that  Absolute  Reason  acts  ori- 
ginatingly  and  electively  from  the  claim  of  its  own 
excellency  and  to  the  end  of  its  own  dignity,  we  have 
at  once  a  personal  Cause  in  Liberty,  who  is  above 
nature,  and  both  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  Nature. 

And  to  convict  the  second  form  of  Pantheism  of 
its  partiality  and  incompleteness,  we  need  to  note 
that  it  can  have  no  Space  and  Time  in  common  with 
human  conscious  experience.  In  it,  the  Absolute 
thought-development  makes  its  own  space  in  the 
statement  of  its  thoughts  in  infinity,  and  its  own  time 
in  the  succession  of  its  thoughts  in  eternity ;  while 
all  particular  appearances  in  nature  are  but  the  stated 
and  passing  out-thoughts  of  this  Absolute  thinking- 
process,  and  can  have  no  space  and  time  of  their  own, 
and  stand  only  in  the  subjective  space  and  time  of 
the  Absolute  thinking. 

But  in  common  conscious  experience,  there  is  in 
each  consciousness  its  own  space  and  time,  with  which 
another  does  not  come  in  communion,  and  also  the 
consciousness  of  a  common  space  and  time  in  which 
all  have  their  determined  experience.  This  can  be 
explicable  only  in  the  truth  that  nature  is  persistent 
9 


130  KNOWLEDGE  OP  A  CREATOR. 

Force  in  changing  forms  and  thus  determining  its  own 
space  and  time  for  every  conscious  experience,  leav- 
ing each  with  his  own  subjective  inner  experience  to 
a  space  and  time  of  his  own  with  which  no  stranger 
can  intermeddle. 

This  reason  ground-work  of  persistent  and  chan- 
ging Forces  is  yet  to  be  known  as  standing  out  in  clear 
intelligence ;  and  in  it  we  shall  find  both  a  creator's 
thought  and  a  creator's  upholding  will,  establishing 
the  thought  in  exact  and  palpable  perpetuity.  Such 
a  creation  is  the  product  of  a  Creator,  who  has  his 
distinct  personal  being  beyond  the  creating  acts  which 
express  his  inner  thoughts. 


PART   II. 

KNOWLEDGE  OF  CREATION. 

Design  and  Method.  —  Nature  has  been  studied 
long  and  patiently  in  the  light  of  experience ;  broad 
inductions  have  been  made,  and  general  judgments 
concluded ;  and  within  their  varied  categories  all  facts 
of  observation  have  been  arranged  and  classified. 
Scarcely  does  a  phenomenon  now  occur  which  has  not 
already  a  name  indicative  of  its  assigned  relation,  and 
a  place  appropriated  to  it  in  the  scientific  catalogue. 
But  convenient  and  useful  as  the  empirical  classifica- 
tions may  be,  like  the  alphabetical  arrangement  of 
the  dictionary,  they  have  no  known  connections  intrin- 
sically determining  the  places  and  periods  of  their 
appearing,  since  the  essence  necessitating  the  man- 
ner and  order  of  appearance  is  ignored,  for  this  is 
held  to  lie  in  a  sphere  quite  beyond  the  reach  of  hu- 
man attainment.  And  yet  science  is  very  familiarly, 
if  not  ostentatiously,  dealing  with  these  unknowable 
essences,  as  substantial  forces  and  efficient  agencies, 
working  out  in  their  inevitable  sequences  the  results 
which  appear.  Certainly,  the  substantial  forces  and 
living  agencies  never  appear  in  human  experience, 

131 


132  KNOWLEDGE   OF  CREATION. 

and  if  we  may  use  them  at  all  in  expounding  phe- 
nomena, it  must  be  by  the  exercise  of  an  intelli- 
gence transcending  all  sense-experience. 

And  now,  not  with  Creation  as  a  fact  accomplished 
are  we  here  interested,  whether  as  actual  appearance 
or  as  force  and  life  working  out  that  appearance ;  we 
go  back  to  the  Creator  we  have  found,  and  seek,  in 
and  from  him,  the  origination  and  established  exist- 
ence of  the  Force  and  Life  which  stand  everywhere 
beneath  the  appearances  coming  up  in  human  expe- 
rience. The  essence  is  to  the  appearance,  as  the 
meaning  is  to  the  word ;  the  sentiment  is  given  to 
reason  in  the  letter,  but  the  meaning  was  before  and 
determined  what  the  letter  must  be,  and  both  the 
meaning  and  the  letter  have  their  source  in  one 
Author. 

Creation  in  appearance  must  be  in  Space  and  Time ; 
as  standing  or  moving  in  space  and  time,  creation 
must  have  essential  Force  ;  and  to  hold  and  use  force 
in  organic  construction  and  agency,  there  must  be 
Life.  To  know  these  at  all,  must  solely  be  in  the  in- 
sight of  Reason ;  and  we  now  assume  what  the  issue 
will  show,  that  creation  given  to  experience  may  be 
determined  by  what  Reason  may  know  of  Space  and 
Time,  Force,  and  Life. 

This  Second  Part  will  thus  need  three  chapters :  — 

Chap.  I.     Reason-knowledge  of  Space  and  Time. 
"     II.     Reason-knowledge  of  Force. 
"   III.     Reason-knowledge  of  Life. 


DIFFERENT  KINDS   OF  SPACE.  133 


CHAPTER    I. 

SPACE  AND  TIME. 

1.  There  are  many  different  Kinds  of  Space. — 
There  may  be  pure  intellectual  constructions  of  geo- 
metricaldiagrams,  that  shall  stand  in  the  consciousness 
of  the  one  who  constructed  them  only.  These  diagrams 
of  right  lines,  curves,  and  angles,  making  purely 
subjective  objects,  will  have  extension,  and-  relative 
distance  and  direction  each  from  each  as  standing  in 
their  places,  and  all  together  will  be  included  in  one 
space  :  but  as  the  diagrams  are  in  the  subject,  so  the 
space  in  which  all  are  is  wholly  subjective.  When 
such  pure  diagrams  fade  away  and  fall  out  of  con- 
sciousness, the  space  in  which  they  stood  falls  away 
from  consciousness  also.  If,  again,  another  set  of 
pure  diagrams  be  similarly  constructed,  they,  too,  will 
have  their  subjective  space,  and  which  in  like  manner 
will  pass  away  when  the  diagrams  pass  out  of  con- 
sciousness. Now,  it  may  be  said  of  each  such  set  of 
figures,  that  they  had  their  own  space,  but  it  cannot 
be  said  of  the  first  set,  that  its  figures  together  were 
in  the  same  space  with  the  figures  of  the  second 
There  have  been  two  spaces  as  truly  as  two  sets  of 
figures,  and  the  same  person  may  have  as  many  dif- 


134  KNOWLEDGE  OP   CREATION. 

ferent  spaces  as  he  shall  have  separately  constructed 
sets  of  figures.  And  then,  too,  any  number  of  per- 
sons may  construct  in  their  own  minds  their  separate 
sets  of  figures,  and  thereby  each  may  have  his  num- 
berless distinct  spaces,  and  neither  one  can  put  all  his 
subjective  spaces  into  one  space,  and  much  less  can 
any  one  put  all  the  subjective  spaces  in  all  persons 
into  any  one  space.  Here,  then,  is  one  kind  of  space 
in  which  stand  the  person's  own  pure  figures,  and 
which  may  be  known  as  Subjective  Space ;  and  yet  this 
one  kind  may  have  infinite  separate  spaces  in  the  sep- 
arate constructions  of  one,  and  of  all. 

So,  also,  the  visual  organ,  morbidly  or  from  pres- 
sure, may  have  colored  spots  of  different  light  and 
shade  floating  within  it,  and  each  spot  will  have  its 
own  outline  defined  more  or  less  completely.  With 
the  spots  in  the  organ,  there  will  also  be  a  space  in 
which  the  spots  appear,  and  all  the  spots  will  have 
their  relative  directions  and  distances  each  from  each 
in  that  one  space.  If  the  eye  become  clear  of  these 
floating  phantoms,  the  space  in  which  they  were  goes 
away  as  the  spots  disappear.  Should  then  another 
occasion  give  other  colored  spots,  they  would  have 
a  common  space,  but  not  the  same  space  as  the  for- 
mer. And  so  other  eyes  may  have  their  spots  and 
spaces,  and  on  divers  occasions,  and  these  spaces  will 
be  diverse,  and  can  never  be  put  into  a  common  space. 
Here  is  another  kind  of  space  as  solely  Organic^  and 
its  separate  spaces  may  be  infinite. 

And'  in  the   same    manner  with  mirrored  spaces 


DIFFERENT  KINDS   OF  TIME.  135 

which  may  be  endlessly  diversified ;  as  also  dream- 
ing spaces,  and  telescopic  spaces  of  different  lenses, 
and  ordinary  phenomenal  spaces,  and  remembered 
spaces ;  in  all  these  varieties  and  sub-varieties,  their 
diversity  can  never  be  brought  into  a  common 
unity. 

2.  There  are  different  Kinds  of  Time.  —  As  ex- 
tension has  its  space  within  which  to  stand,  so  also 
has  succession  a  time  in  which  to  pass.  Thus,  in  all 
the  before-mentioned  kinds  of  space,  if  in  each  a 
series  of  sequences  occur,  there  would  be  as  many 
kinds  of  time,  and  which  could  none  of  them  be  made 
to  stand  in  a  common  time. 

So,  a  person  may  be  absorbed  in  an  inward  train 
of  thought  with  an  intensity  that  shall  prevent  all 
note  of  passing  outer  occurrences.  There  is  a  sub- 
jective time  in  which  the  successions  pass,  and  such 
time  is  only  for  the  man  thinking;  and  to  him  this 
absorption  in  his  own  thinking  may  pass  off,  and  he 
again  note  the  occurrences  of  outer  events ;  and  such 
changed  orders  of  sequences  may  be  frequent,  and 
each  will  have  its  ordered  times  that  cannot  be  in  a 
common  time  for  them  all ;  and  many  men  may  each 
have  such  thinking  times,  and  thus  still  less  can  these 
many  men  bring  all  their  varied  times  into  any  one 
time. 

And  so  with  dreaming  times,  and  outward  appear- 
ing times,  and  past  successions  made  to  be  present 
in  remembered  times  ;  they  all  differ  in  kind,  -and  may 


136  KNOWLEDGE  OF   CREATION. 

all  be  in  all  men,  and  no  one  can  arrange  them  all  in 
any  one  time. 

We  may  thus  say  of  space,  that  there  are  many 
kinds  of  spaces,  and  the  many  cannot  be  put  into 
any  one  space  ;  and  of  time,  that  there  are  many 
kinds,  and  the  many  cannot  come  into  any  common 
time.  And  yet,  we  perpetually  speak  of  space  and 
of  time  as  each  one  Space  and  one  Time.  With  this 
notice  of  the  many  spaces  and  times,  it  might  seem 
impossible  that  we  should  know  the  one  Space  and 
one  Time. 

3.  The  Constructions  of  Sense  give  Extension  and 
Succession  only.  —  The  constructing  agency  works 
in  the  light  of  consciousness,  and  hence  knows  what 
it  is  doing,  and  what  it  has  done ;  but  its  knowing  is 
only  in  the  doing,  and  in  the  product  of  the  w^ork, 
and  not  anything  a  priori  of  the  doer,  or  of  the  con- 
tent as  material  used.  Hence  the  attending,  or  intel- 
lectually constructing  or  defining  agency  knows  only 
the  extensions  and  the  successions  which  its  conjoin- 
ing acts  have  put  together,  and  it  works  the  same  in 
one  field  as  in  another.  It  may  be  in  pure  subjective 
consciousness  constructing  its  mathematical  diagrams, 
or  with  any  content  or  morbid  affection  in  any  sense 
organ,  or  from  a  mirror,  or  in  a  dream,  and  the  line 
or  figure  it  describes  will  be  the  extension  that  it 
knows,  or  the  sequence  that  the  progressive  move- 
ment joins  will  be  the  succession  that  it  knows, 
and  merely  as  constructing  agency,  the  products  are 


LOGICAL  JUDGMENT  ATTAINS  PLACE  AND  PERIOD.  137 

either  extension  or  succession,  and  that  is  all  that  ap- 
pears in  the  consciousness.  The  distinguishing  agen- 
cy may  discriminate  the  contents  used,  and  thus  may 
separate  pure  lines,  or  colored  lines,  or  tangible  lines, 
&c.,  as  also  pure  sequences,  or  colored  sequences, 
&c.,  from  each  other ;  but  all  that  has  any  bearing 
upon  the  knowing  of  space  and  time  is  in  the  con- 
structing, and  not  in  the  distinguishing  operation. 
Were  there,  then,  nothing  further  than  merely  sense^ 
attention,  the  only  apprehension  there  could  be 
towards  the  taking  of  space  and  time  in  the  con- 
sciousness, would  be  that  of  Extension  in  conjoin- 
ing points,  and  tliat  of  Succession  in  passing  through 
points,  let  the  points  as  content  used  be  what  they 
might. 

4.  The  logical  Judgment  gives  Place^and  Period 
ONLY.  —  When  the  conjoining  sense  has  apprehended 
extension  and  succession,  the  logical  understanding 
can  further  operate  upon  the  appearing  extensions 
and  successions,  and  thereby  carry  the  intellectual 
work  further  on  towards  the  cognition  of  space  and 
time.  The  limited  extension  of  any  kind,  say  here 
of  a  colored  cube,  or  the  limited  succession  of  any 
kind,  say  here  of  consecutive  red,  orange,  and  green 
colors,  may  be  subjected  to  the  function  of  abstrac- 
tion, and  if  the  colored  cube,  as  content  in  sensation, 
be  taken  away,  there  will  remain  its  pure  Place  in 
the  consciousness;  and  if  also  the  consecutive  red, 
orange,  and  green  be  abstracted,  there  will  remain 


138  KNOWLEDGE  OF  CREATION. 

their  pure  Period  in  the  consciousness ;  and  thus  by 
abstraction  we  come  to  cognize  place  and  period. 
But  in  this  process  we  know  only  the  place  which 
the  cube  filled,  and  the  period  which  the  movement 
through  the  red,  orange,  and  green  occupied. 

But  such  abstract  places  and  periods  may  now,  in 
a  similar  way,  be  apprehended  in  any  number  and 
variety,  and  the  arranging  and  combining  Judgment 
may  give  to  them  any  possible  conjunctions,  and  so 
far  as  the  combinations  go,  there  will  be  known  the 
place  filled  by  all,  and  the  period  occupied  by  all. 
But  the  knowledge  cannot  go  beyond  the  places  so 
filled  and  the  periods  so  occupied.  If  there  is  a 
chasm  in  the  extensions  or  successions,  that  chasm 
cannot  be  known  as  place  or  period ;  and  if  the  ex- 
tensions or  successions  terminate,  there  cannot  be 
known  either  place  or  period  beyond  the  termina- 
tions. So  much  place  as  is  filled  by  all  known 
places  is  known,  and  so  much  period  as  is  occupied 
by  all  known  periods  is  also  known;  but  nothing 
of  place  or  period  is  known  beyond  this.  Places 
within  a  larger  place,  and  periods  within  a  larger 
period,  we  know  by  regular  logical  process ;  but  we 
cannot  carry  our  logical  conclusions  any  further 
than  we  fill  place  and  occupy  period.  All  that  the 
logical  Judgment  can  possibly  know  of  space  is  a 
place  filled  with  places,  and  all  that  it  can  know  of 
time  is  a  period  filled  with  periods,  and  which  at  the 
utmost  is  a  knowledge  of  place  and  of  period.  The 
place  known  still  is  extension  j  and  the  period  known 


REASON   ONLY   ATTAINS   SPACE   AND   TIME.  139 

still  is  succession  ;  and  the  extension  cannot  be 
space,  for  it  wants  a  space  within  which  the  exten- 
sion may  stand ;  and  the  succession  cannot  be  time, 
for  it  wants  a  time  within  which  the  successions 
may  pass.  No  possible  extension  is  space,  for  it 
must  itself  be  already  stretched  out  in  space,  and 
no  possible  succession  is  time,  for  it  must  already 
itself  be  passing  in  time.  We  might,  on  the  other 
hand,  analyze  the  places  and  periods,  and  strive  to 
get  out  of  place  into  space,  and  out  of  period  into 
time,  by  diminishing ;  but  the  most  we  could  reach 
would  be  the  points  in  place,  and  the  moments  in 
period,  and  these  would  still  be  in  space  and  time, 
and  not  themselves  space  and  time. 

5.  The  Reason  only  can  know  Space  and  Time. 
—  It  is  the  oflSce  and  prerogative  of  Reason  to  look 
into  all  that  Sense  apprehends  and  Understanding 
conjoins,  and  shut  all  together  as  comprehended  in 
one.  And  just  this  the  reason  does  in  its  knowing 
of  Space  and  Time.  Where  the  apprehension  is  of 
diverse  points  or  diverse  instants,  there  may  be 
constructed  limited  extensions  and  limited  succes- 
sions, and  the  understanding  may  conjoin  the  par- 
ticular extensions  and  successions  according  to  any 
appearances  in  experience.  The  places  of  the  ex- 
tensions and  the  periods  of  the  successions  may  be 
thus  conjoined  to  any  amount  of  place  and  period, 
and  it  will  but  put  box  over  box  to  make  up  a  nest 
of  boxes,  or  link  upou  link  to  make  a  chain  of  links. 


140  KNOWLEDGE   OF  CREATION. 

But  the  biggest  box  the  understanding  may  conjoin 
will  still  be  in  place,  and  that  place  not  space,  but 
in  space  ;  and  the  longest  chain  the  understanding 
may  put  together  will  still  be  in  period,  and  that 
period  not  time,  but  in  time.  And  this  space  which 
holds  all  places,  or  this  time  which  contains  all 
periods,  is  respectively  object  only  for  the  reason. 
That,  according  to  its  comprehending  function,  shuts 
all  places  in  a  single  which  is  space,  and  al.l  periods 
in  a  single  which  is  time.  And  this  the  reason  does 
with  any  extensions  constructed  in  any  places,  and 
any  successions  conjoined  in  any  periods,  and  thus 
gives  its  kind  of  space  for  the  kind  of  place,  and  its 
kind  of  time  for  the  kind  of  period,  whether  of  sub- 
jective, organic,  mirrored,  &c.,  spaces,  or  whether  of 
thinking,  dreaming,  &c.,  times.  The  space  and  time 
are  no  aggregates  of  places  and  periods,  but  are 
each  a  concrete  single,  with  no  limits,  internal  nor 
external. 

To  the  reason,  thus,  space  and  time  respective- 
ly comprehend  each  its  own  manifold  in  one,  and 
that  one  can  no  more  be  separated  into  parts  than 
the  parts  can  aggregate  themselves  into  a  single. 
Limited  or  divided  space  and  time  is  as  much  an 
absurdity  and  impertinent  assumption  to  the  Reason, 
as  limitless  place  or  limitless  period  is  to  the  logical 
Judgment.  The  limited  place  cannot  be,  but  there 
must  already  be  the  limitless  space  in  which  it  may 
be ;  and  the  limited  period  cannot  be,  but  already 
there  must  be  the  limitless  time  in  which  it  may  be. 


SAMENESS   OF  SPACE  AND   TIME.  141 

Space  and  Time  are  no  abstractions,  nor  generaliza- 
tions, nor  logical  deductions,  but  necessary  compre- 
hensions of  the  reason  wherever  there  are  diversities 
in  extension  or  in  succession,  the  former  for  space 
and  the  latter  for  time. 

6.  Sameness  of  Space  and  Time  can  be  known 
ONLY  IN  the  Continuity  of  the  Extension  and  Suc- 
cession. —  The  dreaming  space,  and  the  dreaming 
time,  are  each  one  and  the  same  so  long  as  the  ex- 
tensions and  successions  in  the  dream  continue,  but 
the  space  and  the  time  are  both  lost  when  the  ex- 
tensions and  successions  in  the  dream  cease.  What 
makes  two  dreams  is  the  two  spaces  and  times  in 
the  dreams,  and  these  will  occur  in  the  sundering  of 
the  extensions  and  successions.  And  just  so  with 
our  waking  experience ;  the  space  and^the  time  are 
one  and  the  same  while  the  extensions  and  succes- 
sions in  phenomena  continue,  but  the  waking  space 
and  time  are  as  truly  cut  off  in  going  into  a  dream, 
as  the  dreaming  space  and  time  on  awaking  from  the 
dream.  Whenever  the  extension  or  the  succession 
in  consciousness  stops  short,  the  space  and  the  time 
are  gone ;  and  when  they  again  begin,  a  new  space 
and  a  new  time  begin ;  and  we  can  never  put  the 
two  spaces  in  one,  and  the  two  times  in  one,  till  we 
somehow  bring  the  extensions  and  successions  to 
join  themselves  across  the  chasm.  Each  man  has 
as  many  spaces  and  times  as  he  has  interruptions 
of  conscious  extensions  and  successions,  and  he  can 


142 


KNOWLEDGE   OF  CREATION. 


only  bring  his  experience  into  one  space  and  one 
time  by  somehow  kno\ving  that  the  extensions  and 
successions  still  continued  while  he  was  unconscious 
of  them. 

And  so  of  any  two  men,  or  of  all  men ;  they  cannot 
know  that  their  separate  experiences  are  in  the  same 
one  space  and  the  same  one  time,  except  as  they 
somehow  know  that  they  all  have  the  same  con- 
tinuity of  extensions  and  successions.  Every  man 
would  live  only  in  his  own  space  and  his  own  time, 
and  could  have  no  common  space  and  time  with  his 
fellows,  did  he  not  somehow  know  that  his  and  their 
extensions  and  successions  were  the  same.  The 
space  and  the  time  go  with  the  extensions  and 
successions;  coming  with  them,  staying  so  long  as 
they  continue,  and  dying  out  when  they  fade  away 
from  the  consciousness.  Make  the  extensions  and 
successions  Continuous,  and  you  will  have  the  same 
space  and  time  for  one  man  and  for  all  men. 

7.  This  Continuity  of  Extension  and  Succession 

CAN    ONLY    be    KNOWN    THROUGH    SOME    PERMANENT    IN 

Nature.  —  In  every  man's  experience,  phenomenal 
extensions  and  successions  are  frequently  being  inter- 
rupted, and  he  cannot  keep  his  own  space  and  his 
own  time  one  and  the  same  by  his  phenomenal  ex- 
perience. All  men  have  each  their  varied  phenom- 
enal extensions  and  successions,  and  they  could  never 
live  in  communion  in  the  same  space  and  time,  if 
all  rested  upon  their  phenomenal  experiences.     The 


SAMENESS   OF  SPACE  AND  TIME.  143 

history  of  different  generations  has  necessarily  fre- 
quent and  long  breaks  in  the  continuity  of  phenom- 
enal extensions  and  successions,  and  we  could  never 
keep  the  same  space  and  time  for  the  ages,  if  we  had 
only  the  fragmentary  records  of  past  phenomenal  ex- 
perience. The  fabled  Wandering  Jew,  that  carries 
the  curse  of  immortality  from  the  Crucifixion  to  the 
Judgment,  might  keep  awake  in  perpetual  conscious- 
ness of  surrounding  extensions  and  passing  succes- 
sions, and  carry  down  one  space  and  one  time  from  the 
first,  till  space  and  time  should  be  no  more ;  but  even 
his  one  space  and  one  time  would  be  for  himself  only, 
and  no  other  could  commune  with  him  in  his  one 
space  and  time,  any  more  than  they  could  in  the 
awful  experience  to  which  his  impiety  had  doomed 
him.  And  so  it  must  be  with  the  Absolute  logic  of 
the  Critical  thought-process ;  it  has  the  one  Space 
and  one  Time  for  the  Absolute  world-spirit,  but 
no  other  spirit  in  its  free  and  philosophic  dialectical 
movement  can  come  within  the  Absolute  space  and 
time,  or  have  any  other  than  each  his  own  space  and 
time. 

It  is  only  in  the  knowledge  of  a  Permanent  that 
keeps  its  own  place,  and  gives  its  own  phenomenal 
extensions  to  the  same  man  in  his  experience,  and 
to  all  men  always  in  all  experience,  that  can  give 
the  same  space  to  one  man,  and  a  common  space  to 
all  men.  And  it  is  only  one  perduring  source  of  all 
successions  for  one  man  and  all  men,  that  can  give 
the  same  time  to  one  man,  and  a  common  time  to  all 


144  KNOWLEDGE   OP   CREATION. 

men.  When  all  come  to  this  Permanent  for  their  ex- 
tensions and  successions,  then  all  have  one  common 
space  and  one  common  time. 

8.  This  Permanent  may  still  admit  of  great  Modi- 
fications OF  the  one  Space  and  the  one  Time.  —  This 
permanent  in  nature,  which  will  give  its  extended 
and  successive  objects  for  one  and  all,  still  gives  its 
Space  and  Time  for  the  phenomenal  experience  only, 
and  as  the  phenomena  may  have  their  peculiarities 
from  peculiarity  of  organic  constitution,  so  the  Space 
and  Time  may  have  corresponding  peculiar  modifica- 
tions. The  appearances  in  the  heavens  above  and 
on  the  earth  beneath  are  the  sense-afFections  in  all 
organs,  from  the  same  permanent  efficiencies  that 
constitute  the  heavens  and  the  earth  in  their  inner 
essence,  and  must  thus  give  the  same  impressions 
relatively  to  the  same  organs ;  and  in  this  respect 
all  will  be  in  the  same  space  and  the  same  time ; 
but  the  different  constitutional  organism  may  give 
the  appearances  to  be  quite  different  to  difi'erent 
men,  and  indeed  at  different  experiences  to  the  same 
man.  Just  as  the  same  landscape  will  give  its  dif- 
ferent appearances  through  changed  media,  so  the 
same  substantial  world  may  give  different  affections 
through  varied  organs.  The  eye  of  one  may  differ 
from  another  as  telescopes  differ,  and  the  auditory 
apparatus  may  differ  in  different  persons  as  drum- 
heads differ  in  tension  and  vibration,  and  thus  the 
subjective  affections  may  be  widely  dissimilar;  and 


ABSOLUTE  SPACE   AND   TIME.  145 

where  the  extensions  and  successiolis  are  unlike, 
there  the  spaces  and  times  will  be  unlike.  The 
space  of  the  same  landscape  seen  through  the 
changed  ends  of  the  same  telescope  may  be  said 
to  be  in  both  cases  the  same  space,  but  the  modifi- 
cations are  quite  wide  apart  in  the  two  cases.  And 
in  a  similar  way,  the  successions  may  be  largely 
modified  by  making  the  same  motion  appear  through 
differently  magnified  representations.  Even,  thus,  in 
a  common  space  and  a  common  time,  the  extensions 
and  successions  having  modified  appearances,  the 
common  space  and  time  will  have  also  their  modifi- 
cations. 

9.   T^E  Extension  and  Succession  in  the  Substan- 
tial   ITSELF    GIVE,    IN    THE    EeASON,    ABSOLUTELY    ONE 

Space  and  one  Time.  —  Here  is  still  a  deeper  view,* 
and  here  space  and  time  come  out  one  and  the  same 
for  all  intelligences.  The  substantial  world  persists 
in  perfect  conservation  through  all  its  inner  changes, 
and  aside  from  all  peculiarity  of  organism,  the  reason 
gives  sameness  to  nature's  places  and  periods.  This 
secures  the  knowledge  of  the  one  Space  as  containing 
all  the  places,  and  the  one  Time  as  containing  all  the 
periods  of  the  one  substantial,  universal  Nature. 

And  yet,  it  is  to  be  carefully  noted,  that  as  place 
and  period  pass  away  in  the  passing  away  of  phe- 
nomenal extension  and  succession,  so  would  the 
reason-space  and  -time  pass  away  in  the  annihila- 
tion of  Universal  Nature.  The  reason-space  and 
10 


146  KNOWLEDGE   OP  CREATION. 

-time  is  known  in  the  insight  of  the  essential, 
noumenal,  extension  and  succession,  and  if  these 
cease,  their  space  and  time  cease  from  the  reason- 
consciousness.  The  absolutely  self-same  space  and 
time,  respectively,  of  universal  nature  for  all  intelli- 
gences is  still  no  absolute  space  and  time  for  all 
possible  universes.  Were  the  present  Universe  con- 
ceived as  annihilated,  and  all  her  extensions  and 
successions  abolished,  then  must  the  veritable  space 
and  time  of  this  Universe  pass  away  in  its  annihila- 
tion. Were  we  to  conceive  that  another  Universe 
came  into  existence,  this  would  have  for  all  rational 
intelligences  its  absolutely  self-same  space  and  time 
for  all,  but  no  one  could  put  the  spaces  and  times  of 
the  two  universes  into  one  space  and  one  time,  nor 
possibly  say  where  or  when  one  universe  was,  rel- 
atively to  the  other.  No  consciousness  has  both 
in  its  one  light,  and  only  the  one  that  is ;  and  we 
should  be  obliged  to  suppose  two  reasons,  with  each 
his  own  universe  and  its  space  and  time,  and 
neither  reason  to  have  any  communion  with  the 
reason,  the  universe,  and  the  space  and  time  of  the 
other.  This  last  supposition  of  two  independent  ab- 
solute Reasons,  and  their  Universes,  is  a  self-absurdity, 
and  thus  an  inconsistency  with  the  very  being  of 
reason,  and  making  absolute  unreason,  and  cannot 
therefore  be  supposed. 

That  there  should  be  one  common  space  and  com- 
mon time,  it  is  now  seen  that  there  must  be  one 
substantial,   permanent,  universal  Nature,  giving  its 


FORCE  DETERMINES  PHENOMENA.  147 

phenomenal  extensions  and  successions  to  sensible 
experience,  and  standing  itself  in  its  own  place  and 
period,  which  is  veritably  Absolute  Space  and  Abso- 
lute Time,  and  that  no  mere  thought-world  can  have 
such  common  space  and  time. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FORCE. 


1.  Force  determines  Phenomena.  —  A  game  of  bil- 
liards may  be  so  played  before  a  mirror  that  each  ap- 
pearance shall  have  its  duplicate.  All  the  phenomena 
are  grouped  together,  and  the  events  succeed  each 
other  in  the  mirror  as  in  the  open  vision.  The  exten- 
sions and  successions  are  alike,  and  the  spaces  and 
times  are  alike;  the  one  is  but  the  repetition  of  the 
other.  We  might  conceive  the  mirror  and  the  reality 
to  be  so  arranged,  that  by  the  sight  alone  we  could 
not  say  which  was  the  direct  and  which  the  reflected 
appearance.  In  such  a  condition  we  could  not  explain 
any  of  the  phenomenal  connections.  We  could  not 
say  what  gave  the  sticks  their  length,  the  balls  their 
volume,  nor,  on  the  contact  of  sticks  and  balls,  what 
gave  the  balls  their  motion.  We  might  see  that  the 
balls  always  went  when  hit,  and  always  moved  in  the 
direction   they  were   struck,  and   might   talk  of  the 


148  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

necessity  of  such  connectiona,  and  call  the  invariable 
uniformity  of  appearance  laws  of  Nature  ;  but  it 
would  be  mere  uniformity  with  no  known  necessity, 
and  simple  invariableness  with  no  known  law  for  it. 

Should  we,  by  observing  the  frame  of  the  mirror 
or  other  circumstance,  come  to  know  which  was 
the  direct  and  which  the  reflected  appearance,  and 
should  observe  the  invariable  uniformity  of  extension 
and  succession  in  the  two  appearances,  we  might 
probably  go  over  here  with  the  same  talk  of  neces- 
sity and  law  in  reference  to  the  connections  of  direct 
and  reflected  appearance,  as  in  reference  to  the  con- 
nections of  the  phenomena  among  themselves ;  but 
these  necessities  and  laws  of  reflection  would  be 
mere  uniformity  of  fact,  with  no  known  determina- 
tion why  they  were  so. 

We  might  go  further  with  the  sense,  and  apply 
the  auditory  organs  —  hearing  the  balls  hit ;  and  might 
also  apply  the  sense  of  touch  in  muscular  pressure  — 
feeling  the  balls  to  be  hard,  and  the  muscles  to  be 
under  tension  when  the  hand  pushed  the  stick  against 
the  balls ;  and  we  should  here  augment  the  number 
of  invariable  uniformities.  We  should  have  muscular 
tension  when  the  stick  went  towards  the  ball,  and 
sound  and  motion  when  the  stick  and  balls  met ;  and 
again  we  might  talk  of  necessity  and  law,  but  we 
should  still  have  only  uniform  fact,  and  no  known 
necessity  and  law  for  it.  That  there  is  sound  when 
the  balls  hit,  and  that  the  balls  are  hard,  no  more  de- 
termines  any   necessity   for   motion   when   they   hit 


FORCE  DETERMINES  PHENOMENA.  149 

than  when  the  motion  followed  the  contact  in  the 
mirror.  The  mere  animal  sense  cannot  learn  statics 
and  dynamics,  and  determine  phenomenal  connec- 
tions, any  more  through  all  the  organs  than  through 
any  one.  Nor  do  the  phenomenal  contraction  of 
the  muscles  and  the  feeling  of  the  tension  when  the 
hand  moves,  and  pushes  the  stick,  and  impels  the 
ball,  give  any  more  knowledge  of  necessity  and 
law  by  the  sense  and  logical  faculty,  than  the  ap- 
pearances in  a  looking-glass. 

But  the  reason  sees  from  all  these,  and,  indeed,  in 
a  small  part  of  the  phenomena,  that  a  present  Force 
is  conditional  for  these  uniformities,  and  determines 
all  these  invariable  connections.  A  force  stands 
permanent  in  a  place,  and  detemiines  all  the  phe- 
nomenal extensions  ;  and  this  force  changes  its  place, 
and  determines  all  the  phenomenal  movements ;  or  it 
may  be  that  force  modifies  force  in  its  place,  and  thus 
determines  all  phenomenal  successions.  The  mean- 
ing seen,  the  lesson  read  by  the  insight  of  reason  in 
these  phenomena,  is,  that  a  force  is  present  determining 
ever}^  phenomenon  in  extension  and  succession,  and 
necessitating  and  giving  law  to  every  connection.  To 
the  reason,  the  force  is  as  validly  known  as  the  phe- 
nomenon is  to  the  sense,  and  all  the  particular  phenom- 
ena, whether  of  reflection,  or  open  vision  ;  of  exten- 
sion in  place,  or  of  motion  from  place,  or  alteration  of 
appearances,  —  all  are  closed  together  and  completely 
comprehended  in  the  insight  of  the  single  force  that 
has   accomplished   the   whole    result.      The   force   is 


150  KNOWLEDGE   OP  CREATION. 

known   after    the    phenomena,   but   known   to   have 
been  before  the  phenomena. 

This  force,  which  exists  before  and  determines  all 
phenomenal  extensions  and  successions,  cannot  itself 
be  phenomenal ;  the  force  afi'ects  the  sense,  and  the 
peculiar  mode  in  which  the  affection  stands  in  the 
sense-consciousness  is  the  appearance,  or  phenome- 
non ;  and  so  as  the  force  qualifies  the  sense,  we  have 
quality  in  sense  and  substantial  force  in  reason.  The 
reason  sees  in  the  affection  that  the  force  is  condition- 
al for  it,  and  is  the  essential  thing  that  the  quality 
means.  Phenomena  do  not  perpetuate  their  exten- 
sions and  successions,  nor  can  they  deteiTtiine  their 
own  interconnections ;  the  substantial  force  alone 
can  perpetuate  and  connect  sense-appearances.  Sci- 
ence is  getting  fast  hold  of  the  deep  significance  that 
matter  can  stand  alone  in  extension,  and  work  out 
itself  its  successions ;  but  just  so  far  as  science  rec- 
ognizes such  truth,  u  is  obliged  to  modify  all  former 
notions  of  dead  matter, — ^an  inert  matter  moved  by 
force,  —  and  say  out  unequivocally.  Matter  is  Force. 
But  so  saying,  science  is  transcending  experience,  and 
entering  the  sphere  where  the  insight  of  reason  can 
alone  guide  the  footsteps.  If  we  use  force  at  all,  we^ 
must  employ  the  function  of  reason,  and  not  sense, 
nor  logical  conclusions  from  sense ;  and  when  we  so 
come  to  know  that  force  is,  and  what  it  is,  we  may 
also  know  what  creation  is,  and  the  essential  connec- 
tions of  the  created  universe. 


ELEMENTS   OF  FORCE.  151 

2.  The  Elements  op  Force.  —  So  far  as  the  sense- 
apprehension  alone  is  in  exercise,  phenomena  are  all 
the  objects  known ;  and,  to  sense,  phenomena  are  all 
there  is  of  matter.  As  they  alter  or  move,  it  is  the 
common  assumption  that  some  force  has  somehow  been 
applied,  and  thus  it  is  supposed  that  matter  is  one 
thing,  and  that  force  is  distinct  from  it,  and  moves  or 
modifies  it.  These  two  suppositions  cannot  go  to- 
gether. If  sense  give  all  the  elements  of  knowledge 
we  have,  we  shall  have  nothing  to  do  with  forces;  and 
if  force  be  recognized  as  a  cognition  of  reason,  we 
shall  need  and  shall  know  no  other  mat^ter;  and  the 
force  itself  will  be  all  that  matter  is,  and  the  matter 
itself  will  do  all  that  force  does.  The  phenomena 
will,  it  is  true,  be  altered  by  the  force,  but  this  is  be- 
cause the  phenomena  come  of  the  force  through  the 
medium  of  the  sense,  and  are  the  mode  in  which  the 
force  affects  the  sense  and  determines  the  sense- 
experience.  All  matter  and  all  phenomena  may  thus 
be  here  disregarded,  and  only  the  being  of  Force 
considered,  since  the  force  is  the  matter,  and  the 
phenomena  give  only  the  way  the  sense  is  affected 
by  the  force. 

Should  we  conceive  of  some  agency  operating  in  an 
utter  void,  as  perhaps  gravity  or  magnetism,  and  so 
acting  simply  and  singly,  with  or  against  nothing,  we 
could  not  contemplate  in  such  activity  that  it  was  an 
existing  force.  It  must  act  from  or  against  another, 
or  we  cannot  recognize  that  it  has  a  standing  in  place, 
or  a  passing  in  period,  and  it  cannot  manifest  itself  in 


152  KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 

any  form  of  existence.  As  simple  activity,  the  reason 
may  recognize  it,  but  not  sense,  and  as  such  reason- 
object  we  may  name  it  impulse.  The  reason  can  fur- 
ther discriminate  such  impulse  as  having  in  it  an 
efficiency  that  will  manifest  itself  on  reaction  with 
another,  and  know  this  as  energy  in  the  impulse,  dis- 
tinct from  the  efficiency  or  energy  in  the  source  send- 
ing out  the  impulse.  That  source  might  energize  in 
remembering,  or  imagining,  or  even  thinking,  and  the 
activity  would  carry  along  no  energy,  manifesting  it- 
self in  reaction  with  another  remembering,  or  imagin- 
ing, or  thinking ;  but  if  the  source  energize  in  execu- 
tive willing,  that  activity  as  executive  Will  carries 
over  from  the  source  an  efficiency  in  itself,  and  which 
abides  with  it,  and  must  manifest  itself  in  reaction 
when  meeting  in  antagonism  another  executive  activ- 
ity. The  energy  in  the  impulse  is  not  itself  force, 
for  as  yet  it  can  have  no  overt  manifestation ;  but 
meeting  and  counterworking  with  another  such  agen- 
cy, the  two  become  a  third  new  thing  as  Force.  This 
may  be  in  any  way  of  meeting  another,  as  of  impulse 
meeting  impulse,  or  meeting  an  already  existing  force, 
and  such  meeting  and  counterworking  of  the  impulse 
changes  it  from  simple  energetic  impulse  to  an  exist- 
ing efficient  force. 

The  limit  in  which  the  antagonism  occurs  will  be- 
come a  taken  and  fixed  position,  and  will  give  occa- 
sion for  organic  impression,  and  may  thus  induce  phe- 
nomenal extensions  and  successions  aS'  in  place  and 
period;  and  in  its  own  fixed  contemplation  by  tho 


ELEMENTS   OF   FORCE.  153 

reason,  it  gives  occasion  for  estimating  direction  and 
distance  by  all  intelligences ;  and  also  for  estimating 
motion  and  succession  by  all  intelligences ;  and  thus 
for  knowing  one  common  space  and  one  common  time. 
Again,  an  expulse  may  be  sent  out,  and  as  a  balance 
to  its  expulsion  another  must  be  sent  out  in  the  oppo- 
site direction,  and  two  such  divellent  activities  from  a 
common  source  will  be  persistent  in  position,  and  ne- 
cessary each  to  the  other's  expulsion  as  an  equilibrat- 
ed agency ;  and  such  diremptive  action  from  a  given 
limit  will  be  also  force.  Heat  or  light  that  should 
simply  go  off  in  a  single  activity  could  not  be  con- 
ceived as  in  position,  or  determined  as  having  success 
sion  ;  for  there  would  be  no  fixed  point  for  determin- 
ing anything,  and  we  could  not  say  whether  the  single 
activity  were  impulse  or  expulse.  But  when  it  is 
contemplated  that  the  two  activities  are  disrupted  in 
their  source  as  if  each  reciprocally  energized  to  .expel 
the  other,  and  these  together  keep  their  source  in 
equal  and  persistent  activity,  they  will  constitute  a 
recognized  force,  and  give  occasion  from  their  lumi- 
nous, or  thermal  limit  to  determine  extension  and 
motion,  and  thus  fix  their  place  and  period.  The  light 
or  heat  centres  in  diiremption  would  have  a  space  and 
time  in  common  for  all,  as  truly  as  the  magnetic  or 
gravitating  centres  in  their  antagonism.  Such  ex- 
pulses  may  be  contemplated  as  going  out  every  way 
from  a  common  limit,  or  the  impulses  coming  in  every 
way  to  a  common  limit,  and  both  are  forces  giving  a 
space  and  a  time,  respectively,  ia  common  for  all. 


154  KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 

Another  activity  may  be  contemplated  as  turning 
these  antagonisms  or  diremptions  upon  their  central 
limits,  by  the  direction  given  to  the  new  impulses  or 
expulses  that  constitute  a  new  force  in  the  limit 
and  position  of  the  old ;  and  such  activity  meeting 
a;id  turning  the  old  forces  will  be  itself  also  a  true 
force. 

We  have  thus  three  forms  of  forces,  one  with  im- 
pulses counterworking  in  the  limit,  and  which  may 
be  known  as  Antagonist  Force  ;  one  with  expulses 
divellent  from  the  limit,  and  which  may  be  known  as 
JDirernptive  Force  ;  and  one  in  originating  the  new  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  turn  the  old  on  the  limit,  and 
which  may  be  called  Revolving  Force.  In  the  order 
of  contemplation,  the  impulses  are  sent  together  and 
make  the  antagonism ;  the  expulses  are  sent  apart 
and  make  the  diremption ;  and  the  new  force  crowd- 
ing into  the  place  of  the  old  makes  the  revolution. 
But  impulse  and  expulse  and  newly  generating  force 
may  all  counterwork  with  each  other  respectively, 
and  such  mutual  counterworking  will  in  all  cases  be 
Antagonism.  And  the  counterworking  is  the  force ; 
and  out  of  the  force  is  simple  impulse,  or  expulse 
that  has  energy  which  can  be  measured  only  by  the 
force  in  its  place  of  counterworking. 

Force  is  thus  essentially  the  combination  of  two 
activities  implicated  in  action  and  reaction,  whether 
in  their  place  of  antagonism  or  diremption,  and  such 
implication  of  the  duplex  activities  is  not  a  mere  limit, 
as  mathematical  plane,  between  them,  but  a  limited. 


ELEMENTS   OF  FORCE.  155 

as  a  bodily  plate,  which  has  both  upper  and  lower 
side ;  the  action  and  reaction  truly  filling  a  place,  and 
standing  bodily  in  its  own  place,  excluding  other 
bodies.  It  is  more  than  simple  being.  The  impulses 
and  expulses  have  being,  yet  they  can  have  no  ap- 
pearance in  experience ;  but  where  they  act  and 
react,  there  is  interpenetration ;  mutual  implication ; 
and  so  a  standing  in  place  and  perdu  ring  in  period, 
and  thus  the  being  becomes  existence.  While  the 
impulses  and  expulses  out  of  the  place  of  their  im- 
plication are  spiritual  activities,  their  combination  is 
force,  in  which  the  two,  as  antagonizing  or  divellent, 
become  one,  and  such  force  is  overtly  substantial 
and  causal.  It  has  been  made^  and  so  mfact;  it  has 
a  standing  in  re,  and  so  is  a  reality.  Expulses  and 
impulses  may  so  interwork  to  make  all  distinguish- 
able forces,  and  then  forces  may  interwork:  in  endless 
compositions,  resolutions,  conversions,  and  correla- 
tions, while  the  universal  energies  shall  have  persis- 
tent conservation.  We  contemplate  them  as  in  three 
Divisions,  viz.,  Antagonist,  Diremptive,  and  Revolv- 
ing Forces. 


156  KNOWLEDGE   OF  CREATION. 


FIRST  DIVISION. 

ANTAGONIST     FORCE. 

1.  Creation  op  Force.  —  Creation  is  used  here, 
not  as  any  modification  of  an  old,  but  wholly  an 
origination  of  a  new  thing.  Something  is  made  to 
stand  where  there  was  nothing,  and  thereby  giving 
original  existence.  It  does  not  involve  any  viola- 
tion of  the  necessary  truth,  "  out  of  nothing,  nothing 
comes ; "  for  a  Creator  is,  and  from  the  Creator  crea- 
tion comes.  The  attempt  is,  from  the  knowledge  of 
force,  to  attain  a  rational  determination  of  its  Origin. 

Force  may  be  perpetually  converting  itself  into 
other  forms,  while  maintaiiiing  perfect  selfconservar 
tion  and  exact  equivalence ;  but  such  rising  up  -of 
new  forms  is  only  a  change  in  old  forces,  and  what 
we  now  contemplate  is,  the  first  putting  of  force 
where  no  force  was.  From  previous  speculation, 
we  know  a  Creator  spiritual  and  personal,  incogniza- 
ble by  sense,  but  who  is  now  to  manifest  his  "  power 
and  Godhead  "  in  the  creation  of  Force,  and  arrange- 
ment of  it  in  a  material  Universe. 

The  interaction  of  forces  modifies  their  state  and 
place;  but  we  may  here  pass  by  changes  of  inner 
state,  and   contemplate   motion   as   change   of  outer 


CREATION   OF   FORCE.  157 

place,  and  from  this  shall  better  be  in  position  to 
determine  the  creation  of  force.  Matter  at  rest  does 
not  originate  motion,  but  must  be  moved  ;  and  such 
motion  in  experience  indicates  previous  force.  How 
shall  we  attain  the  knowledge  of  a  first  Mover? 

I  draw  a  weight  to  me,  or  cast  a  stone  from  me ; 
and  when  I  consider  the  action,  I  note  that  my  feet 
in  contact  with  the  earth  has  given  occasion  for  an 
antagonism  by  which  equal  momenta  in  opposite 
directions  have  been  imparted  to  the  earth,  and  to 
the  weight  or  stone ;  and  this  in  each  case  alike, 
except  as  in  the  pulling,  the  foot-fulcrum  has  been 
on  one  side  of  me,  and  in  the  pushing,  it  has  been 
on  the  other  side.  The  great  inequality  of  mass 
gives  only  the  motion  of  the  weight,  drawn  or  thrown, 
to  be  noticed,  and  I  can  follow  the  moving  succes- 
sively through  the  working  levers  of  ray  limbs,  the 
contracting  muscles  of  my  body,  the  irritation  of  the 
nerves,  the  excitement  in  the  ganglionic  centres,  the 
affection  in  the  cerebral  sensorium,  and  if  we  include 
the  animal  heat  expended,  we  shall  then  get  through 
the  manifest  material  movement,  and  come  at  length  in 
the  reason  to  the  insight  of  a  sentient  agency,  which 
is  out  of  all  empirical  observation.  Can  this  insight 
go  further  than  the  sentient  impulse? 

A  man  and  a  monkey  may  alike  throw  the  stone, 
and  we  trace  the  successive  movings  of  matter  in 
the  same  way,  in  both  the  man  and  the  brute,  out 
to  a  sentient  impulse  that  stands  beyond  sense- 
observation.     And  in  this  the  man  and  monkey  may 


158  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

still  be  alike.  The  sentient  impulse  to  gi'atify  some 
appetite  may  be  the  moving  spring  in  both,  and  as 
this  is  in  constitutional  nature,  and  must  prompt  ac- 
cording to  its  degree  of  intensity,  what  is  already  in 
nature  moves  the  stone  in  the  case  of  each.  But  the 
man  may  do  the  deed  from  a  motive  the  animal  can- 
not have  in  consciousness.  He  may  know  the  claim 
of  reason  in  either  taste,  or  science,  or  duty ;  and  in 
the  interest  of  beauty,  truth,  or  right,  may  begin 
and  perpetuate  a  movement  on  nature,  which  starts 
from  a  source  beyond  nature,  and  may  resist  and 
control  nature.  This  reason-claim  can  overrule  appe- 
tite, and  overcome  inertia,  and  gravity,  and  friction, 
and  set  static  forces  in  motion.  It  has  not  made  new 
matter,  but  it  has  begun  changes  in  nature  which  can 
never  be  eliminated. 

The  rational  spirit  of  Man  may  thus  begin  an  ac- 
tivity from  itself,  which  shall  originate  motion  in 
matter,  and  so  use  and  control  material  and  sentient 
nature  as  to  manifest  that  he  has,  what  the  Animal 
has  not,  a  supernatural  principle  of  life  and  action. 
He  can  control  himself  as  artist,  philosopher,  or  moral 
agent;  and  both  think  and  act  freely  against  nature. 
He  so  far  creates  as  to  originate  his  own  ideals  of 
beauty,  truth,  and  goodness,  and  express  them  as  his 
own  in  the  world  of  matter  as  really  as  does  the 
divine  Creator.  And  yet,  though  man  may  use  na- 
ture, and  put  his  own  ideals  upon  matter,  yet  can 
he  not  create  matter.  He  moves  matter  only  by 
using  matter   already  created.     TJis   spirit  is  incar- 


CREATION  OF  FORCE.  159 

Dated  in  matter,  and  can  put  out  no  overt  energies 
which  must  not  meet  matter,  and  can  neither  go 
through  nor  around  matter.  His  will  acts  on  nature 
only  through  the  medium  of  his  own  materiality, 
and  though  he  literally  moves  the  world  with  every 
tread,  yet  can  he  not  step  out  in  the  void,  and  put 
his  will  into  his  own  ideal,  and  make  a  new  reality 
and  add  it  to  old  matter.  His  permanent  changes  in 
matter  make  no  additions  to  matter. 

And  were  we  to  suppose  a  finite  spirit  free  from 
all  corporeity,  if  that  be  possible,  the  creation  of  its 
ideals  and  the  will  it  should  put  within  them  would 
make  them  impenetrable  to  another  will  only  to  the 
extent  of  its  own  energy  and  within  its  own  sphere 
of  activity,  and  could  only  stiffen  ideas  into  consis- 
tency within  his  own  subjective  sphere  of  thinking 
and  willing.  But  with  the  pure  Absolute^  Spirit,  we 
have  no  such  hinderances  to  the  supposition  of  his 
creating.  In  him  is  the  Universal  source  of  all  idea 
and  will ;  and  the  putting  an  overt  energy  of  his 
omnipotence  into  his  idea  makes  it  impervious  to 
any  other  will  than  his  own.  It  must  truly  be  sub- 
jective to  himself,  and  within  his  own  degree  and 
sphere  of  thinking  and  willing;  but  so  also  will  all 
other  creatures  be.  All  must  live,  and  move,  and 
have  their  being  m  Him;  and  yet  intelhgibly  they 
must  stand  only  in  Him,  but  out  of  each  other;  all 
immediately  within  the  God-consciousness,  but  only 
mediate  to  any  other  consciousness. 

The  Absolute  Spirit  was,  while  yet  the  material 


160  KNOWLEDGE   OF  CREATION. 

worlds  were  not.  All  elemental  Ideas,  and  all  possi- 
ble combinations  of  them,  are  his ;  and  that  interest 
which  comes  from  seeing  that  it  is  the  most  satis- 
factory in  the  end  of  reason  that  the  ideal  be  ex- 
pressed in  overt  reality  is  also  his.  But  neither 
the  elemental  nor  the  combined  Universal  Idea 
is  force.  It  stands  only  in  thought,  and  has  not 
been  fixed  in  steadfast  thing.  And  the  most  simple 
element  for  thing  in  any  form  is,  as  has  already  been 
noticed,  the  meeting  and  antagonizing  of  two  single 
impulses  in  a  common  limit.  We,  now,  suppose  the 
Creator  to  fill  the  simplest  idea  of  force  with  such 
antagonizing  impulses :  and  the  Idea  is  no  longer 
mere  thought;  an  energetic  will  has  fixed  the 
thought  in  its  own  counterworking  steadfast  in  the 
void,  and  the  place,  empty  of  all  but  thought,  is 
now  filled  by  a  force  which  will  not  let  anything 
but  itself  stand  in  it,  without  first  moving  itself 
from  it.  It  is  the  first  element  of  matter,  or  rather 
matter  itself  in  its  primal  essence.  The  equal  an- 
tagonism holds  the  force  at  rest  in  fixed  position, 
or  an  excess  of  energy  in  one  impulse  over  the 
other  necessitates  perpetual  passing  out  of  place, 
which  is  motion.  Here  is  sufficient  occasion  for 
common  extension,  and  thus  a  Common  Space,  and 
common  succession,  and  thus  a  Common  Time.  And 
space  may  to  any  extent  be  so  filled  and  periods 
so  pass,  and  we  shall  have  therein  a  World  making 
its  own  history. 

The  antagonizing  impulse  is  to  be  conceived  as 


FORCE  AFFECTS  SENSE-ORGANS.         161 

God's  product,  just  as  the  stone-throwing  impulse 
was  the  man's  product.  The  latter  moved  matter  in 
meeting  it,  the  former  made  matter  in  meeting  an- 
other impulse.  And  just  as  the  stone-throwing  im- 
pulse, though  the  product  of  the  man's  spirit,  is  not 
the  spirit,  so  the  force,  though  the  product  of  God, 
is  still  not  God.  The  limit  between  the  material  and 
spiritual,  the  natural  and  supernatural,  is  in  the  im- 
pulse. Where  that  meets  in  the  limit  and  antago- 
nizes, matter  and  nature  begin ;  above  that  is  the 
region  of  the  spiritual  and  supernatural,  spaceless 
and  timeless  except  in  thought-statement  and  thought- 
movement  only.  The  completed  creation  will  demand 
the  cognition  of  the  three  distinct  conscious  agencies 
before  considered,  viz.,  the  free  idealizing,  and  the 
realizing,  and  the  formalizing  agency;  but  for  some 
time  to  come,  we  shall  need  but  the  conception  of 
simple  impulses  counter-working  in  their  limits  of 
meeting,  and  thus  becoming  Force,  in  order  to  an  in- 
sight of  many  Principles  and  Laws  which  must  deter- 
mine largely  human  experience  in  connection  with 
the  mateiial  universe. 

2.  It  is  competent  for  Force  to  affect  any 
Sense-organs.  —  All  sense-organs  have  their  pecu- 
liar appropriate  arrangements,  and  their  living  nerves 
for  conveying  the  irritation  from  any  impression  to 
the  central  sensorium.  The  organ  being  properly 
constituted,  it  is  open  to  the  application  of  force  in 
some  form,  either  direct  from  the  body  of  the  space- 
11 


162  KNOWLEDGE  OF  CREATION. 

filling  force,  or  through  some  medium  between  the 
body  and  the  organ.  The  combined  forces  that  fill 
their  place,  and  constitute  body,  cannot  *put  them- 
selves within  the  organ,  and  through  that  into  the 
consciousness,  and  therefore  forces  themselves  can- 
not be  made  to  appear,  in  any  sense  :  but  they  may 
make  their  impression  upon  any  organ  superficially, 
and  such  impression  stimulates  the  nerve,  the  afiec- 
tion  in  which  we  term  sensation,  and  which  is  intel- 
lectually brought  into  full  perception.  The  organ  is 
the  medium  between  the  force  and  the  intellect,  and 
the  afi'ection  in  the  organ  by  the  force  is  the  imme- 
diate object  of  apprehension  and  intellectual  con- 
struction ;  so  that  the  constitutional  essence  of  mat- 
ter is  perceived  by  no  sense,  and  only  the  mode  in 
which  the  organ  has  been  afi'ected  by  the  matter. 
Hence  it  is  that  we  rightly  term  all  sense-appearance 
phenomenon,  while  the  force,  as  matter  in  itself,  and 
which  cannot  appear,  is  .  termed  noumenon.  The 
noumenon  is  the  object  of  the  reason-knowing,  while 
the  phenomenon  is  the  object  of  the  sense-knowing. 
The  usual  distinction,  in  less  technical  form,  is  "  the 
thing  in  itself"  and  its  "qualities."  The  animal 
sense  knows  only  qualities,  and  without  the  compre- 
hending insight  of  reason,  it  could  not  be  known 
that  there  is  any  object  beyond  the  quality.  There 
are  those  who  say  that  the  sense  is  so  constituted 
that  we  know  the  thing  in  itself  by  it,  and  this, 
though  lacking  in  essential  discrimination,  is  true 
on  the  whole.     The  sense  is  so  constituted  that  in 


FORCE  AFFECTS  SENSE-ORGANS.         163 

it  the  reason  knows  the  thing  in  itself,  but  the  ani- 
mal sense  knows  only  the  appearing  quality.  The 
phraseology  gives  the  truth  as  a  whole,  but  it  wrong- 
fully ignores  the  agency  of  reason,  and  ascribes  to 
the  agency  of  sense  more  than  any  sense  can  accom- 
plish. No  consciousness  ever  embraced  the  essence 
of  matter  as  "thing  in  itself,"  and  the  reason  does  con- 
template what  is  in  consciousness,  so  as  to  know  that 
this  truly  means  essential  matter  beyond  appearance. 
This  discrimination  of  cognitive  Faculty  makes 
consistent  the  use  of  the  terms  Substance  and  Acci- 
dence, Cause  and  Effect,  Action  and  Reaction.  The 
reason  knows  the  persistent  force  giving  determina- 
tion to  the  appearances  in  simple  apprehension,  and 
comprehends  them  in  one  by  it;  the  comprehensive 
force  is  Substance,  and  the  sense-appearances  are 
Accidence.  The  reason  also  knows  that  a  substan- 
tial force  becomes  changed  by  interaction  with  an- 
other, and  that  variations  of  appearance  in  the  appre- 
hension are  induced  by  it,  and  comprehends  the 
varying  accidence  in  the  changed  substance ;  the 
interacting  substances  make  the  determining  Cause, 
and  the  varying  events  are  its  Eifect.  And  so  again, 
the  reason  knows  that  the  interacting  substances 
modify  reciprocally,  and  that  as  one  changes  the 
other,  this  one  is  also  changed  by  the  other,  and 
thus  the  varying  accidence  in  each  is  shut  in  con- 
current communion  ;  and  such  comprehension  of 
interacting  forces  and  mutually  changed  appearances 
is   Reciprocity.      The   reason   sees,  in   the   knowing 


164  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

processes  of  the  above  three  cases,  a  perfect  accord- 
ance with  the  action  of  the  knowing  forces,  and  that 
the  knowing  subjectively  and  the  being  objectively 
exactly  correspond. 

And  thus  it  is  plain  that  the  existence  of  such 
space-filling  forces  gives  occasion  for  impressing  any 
kind  of  sense-organs,  and  awaking  sensations  within 
them  in  endless  diversity,  and  thereby  multiplying 
appearances  in  experience  as  various  as  the  organs 
affected  and  the  forces  impressing  them,  and  accord- 
ing to  the  direction,  rapidity,  and  intensity  of  the 
stroke.  As  is  the  peculiar  sensation,  such  must  be  the 
perception ;  and  as  the  organs  in  different  persons  are 
alike  or  similar,  such  must  be  the  sameness  or  similari- 
ty in  their  perceptions;  and  if  the  organs  of  some  are 
morbidly  or  congenitally  varied  from  the  normal  stand- 
ard, such  must  be  the  defect  or  derangement  of  their 
perception.  The  perfect  organ  being  given,  the  exist- 
ing Force  has  only  appropriately  to  strike  it,  and  the 
content  is  given  that  the  sense  knows  according  to 
its  phenomenal  quality,  and  in  the  quality  the  reason 
knows  the  substantial  matter  in  its  essential  nature. 
Thus  all  appearances  in  all  experiences  come  from 
the  same  universal  forces,  and  are  connected  in  one 
Space  and  Time. 

3.  Force  determines  Motion.  —  The  elements  of 
force  make  it  an  object  for  the  contemplation  of  the 
reason  of  much  the  same  clearness  as  the  intuition 
of  a  pure  mathematical  diagram.     We  may  construct 


FORCE  DETERMINES  MOTION.  '  165 

the  direction  of  the  energizing  impulses,  and  fix  their 
limit  of  counterworking,  and  the  comprehension  of 
the  separate  energies  in  the  antagonism  makes  it 
easy  for  the  reason  to  determine  what  must  be  the 
necessary  and  universal  result.  The  force  has  an 
intelligible  nature,  and  must  develop  its  action  ac- 
cording to  its  constitutional  being,  and  resting  and 
moving  will  be  according  to  laws  which  abide  in  the 
forces  themselves.  We  do  not  seek  now  to  follow 
any  phenomenal  changes  through  their  processes, 
since  they  are  but  the  effects  of  force,  and  could 
give  only  the  appearance  after  the  fact ;  but  we  con- 
template the  force  itself  in  its  essential  nature,  and 
can  foretell  what  must  be,  step  after  step,  from  the 
determination  of  principles  as  a  priori  laws. 

When  the  impulses  just  balance  their  energies  in 
the  antagonism,  by  resisting  in  action,  and  reaction 
equally,  they  must  therein  rest  constant  in  one  posi- 
tion. The  literal  import  of  rest  is  balanced  resist- 
ance. Where  so  purposed  and  constituted  by  the 
Maker,  the  force  keeps  one  place  permanently,  and 
such  is  properly  a  static  Force  ;  a  standing  steadfast 
in  its  place.  When  unequal  energies  counterwork, 
their  mutual  resistance  is  force  to  the  extent  of 
their  equal  energizing;  but  such  force  cannot  rest 
in  one  place,  since  its  constituent  impulses  do  not 
stand  equally  in  energy  one  against  the  other.  The 
impulse  that  has  an  excess  of  energy  must  prevail- 
ingly impel  from  its  side,  and  drive  the  static  force 
from  its  place   in   the   direction    of   its   energizing. 


166  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

The  force  in  this  way  must  successively  pass  from 
position  to  position,  and  such  passing  through  con- 
tiguous points  is  generated  Motion.  What  to  the 
sense  is  an  absurd  because  self-contradictory  de- 
mand, that  there  should  be  a  first-mover,  is  here 
made  self-consistent  and  wholly  intelligible.  In  mat- 
ter as  given  to  the  logical  understanding  there  can 
be  thought  no  first-mover ;  for  the  mover  must  al- 
ready be  in  motion,  in  order  that  it  may  move  another. 
The  reason-object  as  Absolute  Spirit  can  have  no 
loco-motion,  inasmuch  as  he  can  be  never  known  as 
occupying  place.  But  the  Absolute  Spirit  can  origi- 
nate force  with  unequal  impulses,  and  this  must  im- 
mediately generate  motion.  The  force  moves,  but 
the  Mover  does  not  move,  and  in  this  force  motion 
begins. 

An  addition  of  energy  on  one  side  must  drive 
from,  and  a  subtraction  of  energy  on  one  side  drives 
from  the  opposite  side,  or  may  be  said  to  draw  to,  and 
loco-motion  is  ever  from  the  push  or  pull  of  unequally 
energetic  impulses.  A  Force  thus  unbalanced,  mov- 
ing from  place  to  place  or  pushing  in  its  own  place, 
is  a  dynamic  Force,  and  may  overcome  the  rest  of  a 
static  force.  A  static  stands,  a  dynamic  drives  or 
draws.  Designed  movement  may  so  be  generated 
when  before  there  was  no  motion.  In  the  light  of 
such  necessary  truths  all  the  Laws  of  Motion  may 
readily  be  determined.  We  know  them  not  as 
gained  in  experience,  but  as  they  must  be  before 
and  in  all  experience. 


FIRST   LAW  OF   MOTION.  167 

i.  Motion  from  simple  excess  of  energy  must  be  in- 
cessant, uniform^  and  rectilineal.  If  one  impulse  be  of 
greater  energy  than  the  other,  it  must  still  be  counter- 
acted by  the  weaker  to  the  amount  of  energy  which 
the  weaker  has,  but  the  excess  of  the  stronger  has 
nothing  to  balance  it,  and  it  must  immediately  impel 
the  force  as  balanced'  into  motion,  and  as  nothing  in- 
terferes to  check  the  motion,  it  must  be  incessant. 
The  excess  of  energy  gives  its  amount  of  impetus  at 
once,  and  thence  onward  follows  up  as  the  force  that 
is  balanced  proceeds,  and  never  comes  to  any  repeti- 
tion of  impetus.  The  motion  must,  thus,  be  not  only 
incessant,  but  also  uniform. 

The  excess  of  energy  gave  its  impetus  at  the  start 
in  its  own  direction  of  working,  and  which  necessi- 
tated the  movement  of  that  balanced  force  to  begin  in 
that  direction.  As  thenceforth  there  can  be  no  repe- 
tition of  impetus  in  any  direction,  so  the  motion  must 
be  incessant  and  uniform  not  only,  but  also  must  be 
rectilineal. 

The  whole  perpetuated  motion  is  determined  in  the 
instant  impetus,  and  henceforth,  without  other  agen- 
cy, nothing  of  the  motion  varies.  All  the  above  must 
be  as  true,  in  the  case  of  all  aggregate  forces  in  their 
one  body,  as  with  the  forces  in  one  point,  for  each 
point  will  have  the  same  determinate  law,  and  the 
whole  must  move  together  as  the  one,  incessantly,  uni- 
formly, and  rectilineally. 

Again,  the  same  determinate  law  must  prevail  in  all 
transmissions  of  motion  by  the  impetus  of  different 


168  KNOWLEDGE    OF  CREATION. 

bodies.  If  any  aggregate  of  forces  occupy  places  in- 
dividually in  a  body  at  rest,  and  other  forces  moving 
in  body  come  in  contact  in  the  direction  of  their  bal- 
anced antagonism,  the  moving  forces  bring  just  their 
excess  of  energies,  in  their  direction  of  motion,  to  the 
forces  at  rest  which  work  in  the  same  direction,  and 
thus  give  to  them  their  instant  measu-e  of  impetus 
in  the  same  direction  of  working,  and  therefore  the 
forces  at  rest  must  take  on  an  incessant  motion  in  the 
same  right-lined  direction,  and  in  unifoim  progression 
from  that  point  of  contact.  And  if  forces  moving  in 
a  body  come  in  contact  with  those  moving  m  another 
body  by  reason  of  greater  velocity,  the  excess  of  en- 
ergy on  the  one  side  of  the  antagonism  in  the  swifter 
body  will  add  a  greater  degree  to  the  excess  in  the 
slower  body,  and  thus  instantly  quicken  its  motion, 
but  thenceforth  that  quickened  motion  must  be  inces- 
sant, uniform,  and  right-lined.  And  so  must  it  be  in 
all  cases  of  simple  excess  of  energies. 

ii.  That  motion  which  any  superinduced  foi^ce  would 
give  must  be  compounded  with  the  motion  which  the  ori- 
ginal force  already  has.  Not  here,  as  in  the  first  law, 
is  there  perpetually  a  uniformity  of  the  excess  of 
energy  and  of  the  direction,  but  there  is  a  combinar 
tion  of  impulses  or  of  forces,  and  also  the  introduction 
of  that  which  in  one  case  modifies  the  rate,  and  in 
another  case  the  direction,  of  the  motion.  Another 
degree  of  excess  in  the  antagonism  is  given,  and  thus 
the  uniformity  of  the  velocity  must  be  lost,  or  there 
is  an  impulse  transverse  to  the  old  antagonism  given, 


SECOND   LAW   OF  MOTION.  •  169 

and  thus  the  rectilineal  movement  before  the  greater 
energy  is  gone.  The  degrees  and  the  directions  of 
the  energies  must  be  compounded. 

We  may  here  take  any  physical  force  moving  under 
the  determinations  of  the  first  law  above  given,  and 
now  superinduce  a  new  force  acting  upon  it.  In  one 
case,  it  may  be  precisely  in  the  line  of  the  old  antago- 
nisms, but  in  contrary  directions,  and  of  different  de- 
grees of  energy.  If  in  the  direction  of  the  weaker 
energy  of  the  moving  forces,  and  yet  not  of  sufficient 
energy  to  balance  the  excess  of  the  stronger,  it  must 
then  retard  the  movement.  If  sufficient  in  energy  to 
just  equal  and  balance  the  excess,  it  must  wholly  sus- 
'pend  all  motion.  If  sufficient  to  give  to  the  weaker 
side  of  the  antagonism  a  stronger  impulse,  then  the 
excess  of  energy  changes  sides,  and  the  old  motion  is 
not  only  suspended,  but  turned  back,  and -must  be  ret- 
rograde movement.  If  the  superinduction  be  on  the 
side  of  the  more  energetic  impulse,  there  must  be  ac- 
celerated motion.  If  the  retardation  or  acceleration 
be  by  a  force  that  gives  its  impetus  singly  and  at 
once,  then  will  the  measure  of  the  motion  be  deter- 
mined in  the  instant  impetus,  and  thenceforward  the 
motion  must  be  uniform.  But  if  the  retardation  or 
acceleration  be  from  a  force  which  perpetually  renews 
its  impetus,  then  must  the  motion  be  perpetually  re- 
tarded or  accelerated.  In  all  of  these  cases  it  is 
manifest  that  the  old  motion  is  to  be  compounded  with 
the  new  motion  given,  inasmuch  as  these  compound 
motions  are  the  resultants,  necessarily,  of  the  combin- 


170  KNOWLEDGE   OP  CREATION. 

ing  of  the  old  And  new  forces,  and  thereby  modifying 
the  excess  of  energy  which  generates  the  motion, 
though  in  the  above  cases  there  can  be  no  change  in 
direction  except  as  it  may  be  directly  retrograde,  but 
must  always  be  in  the  same  line. 

In  another  case  of  compounding,  the  superinduced 
force  may  be  applied  transversely  to  the  old  antago- 
nism. In  such  case  there  can  be  no  balancing  of  the 
antagonisms,  nor  a  direct  reversing  of  the  excess  of 
energy,  nor  merely  an  increasing  the  weaker  or  the 
stronger  impulse,  and  therefore  the  composition  of  the 
forces  and  their  resulting  movements  can  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  uniformity  of  movement,  but  must 
necessarily  modify  its  direction,  inasmuch  as  the  new 
transverse  force  will  not  allow  the  old  excess  of  ener- 
gy to  go  any  way  up  or  down  the  old  line  of  working. 
This  old  excess  of  energy  will  continue  in  its  old  di- 
rection, and  the  superinduced  force  will  come  and 
continue  in  some  transverse  direction,  and  the  first 
law  of  motion  cannot  have  an  unhindered  application. 
The  movement  cannot  be  in  the  line  of  the  old  more 
energetic  antagonism,  for  the  superinduced  force  now 
thwarts  this  by  intersecting  its  line ;  and  no  more  can 
the  movement  be  in  the  line  of  the  new  force,  because 
the  old  excess  of  energy,  continues  working  in  its 
former  direction,  and  must  thwart  the  superinduced 
force. 

This  new  force  may  come  in  any  direction  on  either 
side  of  the  line  of  the  old  antagonisms,  but  in  any 
way  it  must  be  in  the  same  point  with  the  old  impulses 


SECOND   LAW   OF  MOTION.  171 

at  their  counterworking.  That  superinduced  force  is, 
then,  as  a  third  impulse  meeting  the  antagonist  im- 
pulses in  their  point  of  contact,  and  interfering  in  the 
results  of  their  working,  and  the  motion  induced  must 
be  determined  by  the  compounding  of  those  impulses. 
The  excess  of  the  antagonist  energy,  and  so  the  mo- 
tion, was  before  on  one  side  and  in  one  direction  of 
the  antagonism,  and  the  new  is  tending  in  its  own  di- 
rection, and  they  can  now  neutralize  and  balance 
themselves  in  but  one  common  point  between  them. 
That  common  point  will  give  its  excess  of  energy  as 
a  unit,  and  move  the  force  accordingly,  and  the  per- 
petuation of  the  impulses  must  perpetuate  successive- 
ly the  points  in  which  they  balance  each  other,  and 
the  motion  must  be  through  these  points  successive- 
ly, from  one  to  another,  and  thus  the  line  of  motion 
must  be  through  the  points  in  which  the  compound 
energies  shall  balance  each  other.. 

The  rate  of  motion  and  its  direction,  which  the  ex- 
cess of  energy  on  one  side  of  the  antagonism  has  in- 
duced, being  given,  and  then  the  rate  of  motion  and 
its  direction,  which  must  be  induced  in  the  excess 
of  energy  on  one  side  of  the  force  which  is  to  be  sup- 
plied, being  also  known,  we  must  compound  the  two 
according  to  their  respective  velocities  and  direction, 
and  this  will  give  the  velocity  and  direction  of  the 
newly  acquired  motion.  This  compounding  of  the 
excess  of  the  energies  must  put  the  resulting  line 
somewhere  between  the  lines  of  direction  which  they 
separately  make.     The  forces  may  be  either  repellent 


172  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

or  tractile,  and  their  resultant,  both  in  degree  and 
direction,  will  be  the  diagonal  of  the  parallelogram 
which  is  formed  by  drawing  a  straight  line  in  the 
direction  of  each  of  the  forces,  so  that  the  two 
straight  lines  shall  be  proportional  to  the  degrees 
of  the  forces ;  and  then,  from  the  end  of  each  line, 
there  must  be  drawn  a  line  parallel  to  the  other, 
thereby  completing  the  parallelogram.  The  common 
resultant  of  any  number  of  forces  may  so  be  deter- 
mined, by  taking  them  two  by  two  to  the  last.  The 
excesses  of  energy  being  equal,  the  resultant  bisects 
the  angle;  if  unequal,  the  resultant  must  be  on  the 
side  towards  the  line  of  the  greater,  making  the  sines 
of  the  angles  with  the  component  forces  to  be  in- 
versely as  the  forces  themselves. 

If  the  excesses  be  equal  and  opposite,  and  there 
be  no  generation  or  accumulation  of  force  at  the 
point  of  antagonism,  they  must  equilibrate  perpetual- 
ly, and  no  motion  can  occur.  But  if  there  be  a  gen- 
erating of  new  forces  perpetually  at  this  point  of 
antagonism,  there  will  then  be  a  peculiar  composi- 
tion which  must  give  its  peculiar  but  still  very 
determinate  resultant.  The  physical  fact  of  the 
equilibrating  impulses,  as  a  static,  has  the  further 
metaphysical  fact  of  the  originating  new  forces  con- 
tinually, as  dynamic  growth,  in  the  same  place  as 
the  existing  force.  The  direction  of  the  continually 
generating  forces  must  be  determined  by  the  an- 
tagonism of  the  impulses  working  in  that  place.  The 
spiritual  source  is  as  a  constant  energizing  in  the 


SECOND   LAW   OF   MOTION.  173 

limiting  point  of  the  already  antagonizing  impulses, 
and  sends  out  a  perpetual  growth  of  antagonizing 
impulses  in  that  limiting  point;  and  while  resisted 
by  the  old  impulses,  and  yet  issued  out  in  growth 
against  them,  these  impulses  of  the  new  must  in 
this  condition,  at  first,  be  determined  to  an  antago- 
nism transversely  with  the  old,  and  perpendicular  to 
them  in  their  common  point  of  working.  The  con- 
stant accumulations  of  the  new  impulses  must,  at 
length,  bring  their  antagonisms  into  all  directions, 
and  ensphere  them  about  this  point.  The  Spiritual 
source  is  Himself  independent  of  place,  and  cannot 
be  determined  as  in  any  place,  but  He  creates  new 
forces  in  the  same  plac'e  as  is  the  old  force,  and  the 
compounding  of  old  and  new  in  their  working  must 
equilibrate  in  the  beginning  in  perpendicular  antag- 
onism, and  ultimately  in  ensphered  antagonism. 

The  method,  as  above  given,  of  compounding  the 
motions  of  two  forces,  which  motions  are  generated 
by  their  respective  excess  of  energies  on  one  side 
of  their  antagonisms,  is  applicable  to  any  number 
of  superinduced  forces,  and  any  variety  in  their  ex- 
cess of  energies.  In  each  case  the  old  motion  must 
be  given,  and  the  resulting  motion  from  the  com- 
position of  the  first  superinduced  force  must  be 
found,  and  this  will  then  become  the  given  motion. 
This,  then,  must  be  compounded  with  the  motion 
which  the  second  superinduced  force  would  secure 
as  its  resultant,  and  this,  then,  is  a  given  motion  to 
be  compounded  with  a  third  superinduction,  and  thus 


174  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

onward  to  any  number.  The  resulting  motion  will 
ever  be  the  compound  of  that  which  either  force 
applied  in  succession  would  give  together  with  that 
which  had  before  been  given  in  the  original,  or  any 
aggregate  of  superinduced  forces.  The  first  Law 
determines  the  direction  of  motion,  from  the  per- 
petuity and  constant  direction  of  the  excess  of 
energy  which  generates  it.  The  second  Law  de- 
termines the  direction  of  motion,  from  the  com- 
pounding of  the  aggregate  excess  of  energies  in 
all  the  forces  which  conspire  to  generate  it. 

iii.  ITie  rate  of  motion  must  be  directly  as  the  dy- 
namic force  moving,  and  inversely  as  the  static  force 
moved.  The  static  force  is  the  intensity  of  energy 
with  which  the  antagonism  holds  itself  in  position,  and 
the  dynamic  force  is  the  excess  of  energy  in  one  side 
of  the  antagonism  together  with  the  intensity  of  the 
counteraction.  In  the  static  both  impulses  equally 
energize  and  resist  each  other,  and  the  degree  of 
the  energies  which  rest  against  each  other  is  the 
measure  of  the  force.  In  the  dynaniic  both  impulses 
energize  and  resist,  and  thus  constitute  a  force ;  but 
one  impulse  is  of  superior  energy,  and  thus  perpetual- 
ly displaces  this  force,  and  the  excess  of  the  energy, 
together  with  the  intensity  of  the  counteraction,  meas- 
ures the  dynamic  force.  The  impulses  may  be  of 
greater  intensity  in  each  point  of  a  small  body,  so 
as  to  equal  a  less  intensity  in  the  many  points  of  a 
large  body ;  and  thus  it  must  follow  that  it  is  not  the 
volume  only,  but  the  volume  and  the  intensity,  and 


THIRD   LAW   OF   MOTION.  175 

which  will  be  the  mass,  that  measures  the  resistance 
to  motion;  and  that  it  is  not  the  mass  alone,  but  the 
mass  and  the  excess  of  energy  that  measure  the 
capability  to  overcome  rest  and  induce  motion. 

When,  then,  one  force  acts  upon  another,  the  two 
are  combined  into  one  which  is  exactly  equivalent 
to  their  sum.  The  static  element  of  this  new  force 
in  combination  must  be  the  sum  of  the  static  elements 
of  the  two  compound  forces  ;  and  the  excess  of  im- 
pulse of  the  new  force  is  found  from  the  considera- 
tion, that  when  combined  with  the.  new  static  ele- 
ment, the  resultant  must  be  equal  to  the  sum  of  the 
two  component  dynamic  forces.  This  determines  the 
excess,  and  consequently  the  rate  of  motion  which 
measures  the  excess  (when  the  static  force  is  given), 
to  be  directly  as  the  dynamic  and  inversely  as  the 
static.  Of  course,  when  there  is  no  excess  of  energy 
in  one  of  the  antagonist  impulses,  the  force  is  a  static ; 
but  when  this  is  moved  by  a  dynamic,  its  rate  of  mo- 
tion is  determined  by  the  same  law.  The  whole  body 
moving  may  be  called  the  dynamic  force  moving,  and 
the  whole  body  moved  may  be  called  the  static  force 
moved;  and  the  Third  Law  of  Motion  is  exactly  ex- 
pressed by  its  being  directly  as  the  first  and  inverse- 
ly as  the  last.  The  complete  conception  of  the  static 
and  dynamic  force  contains  the  complete  determina- 
tion of  the  Third  Law  of  Motion. 

In  this  Third  Law  of  Motion  is  involved  the  con- 
ception of  Momentum,  Virtual  Velocities,  Inclined 
Plane,  Acceleration  of  Falling  Bodies,  the  determin- 


176  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

ing  Principles  of  Fluid  Pressure,  and  the  Revolutions 
of  Planetary  Bodies.  All  the  laws  of  Elementary 
Mechanics  are  eternal  in  the  forces. 

4.  The  Atom  is  constituted  from  the  created 
Forces.  — *-  Single  forces  may  be  created  in  any  num- 
ber and  put  together  in  any  variety  of  modes,  but  for 
the  future  uses  of  the  atom,  it  is  necessary  that  it  be 
constituted  from  the  forces  in  its  own  peculiar  mode. 
The  forces  are  the  component  elements  of  the  Atoms, 
and  the  atoms  are  to  be  the  component  elements  of 
the  Universal  worlds;  and  these  atoms,  therefore, 
must  so  be  constituted  as  most  completely  to  admit 
of  expressing  the  divine  Idea  in  the  created  uni- 
verse ;  and  its  future  uses  in  the  construction  of 
material  bodies  demand  that  we  have  full  contempla- 
tion of  its  own  inner  construction  in  every  particu- 
lar. We  might  conceive  of  two  Atmospheric  cur- 
rents meeting  in  antagonism,  and  so  interpenetrating 
by  mutual  action  and  reaction  each  with  each  that 
they  should  form  together  a  sphere  of  their  own  in 
the  midst  of  the  surrounding  atmosphere;  and  even 
the  conception  might  be  extended  to  the  resistances 
the  currents  should  give  to  their  interpenetra,ting 
reagencies  on  each  side,  turning  them  into  circuits, 
and  so  making  the  sphere  a  whirlwind ;  and  still 
more,  that  at  the  limit  of  antagonism,  the  turning 
reagencies  might  drive  each  other  in  opposite-handed 
circuits,  and  so  make  the  spherical  whirlwind  to  have 
its  contrary  direction  in  its  two  hemispheres.     And 


THE  ATOM  CONSTITUTED  OF  FORCES.      177 

as  the  counterpart  to  such  conception,  we  might  well 
take  the  antagonizing  impulses  as  they  act  and  react 
in  constituting  a  single  force,  and  contemplate  their 
interpenetrations  to  be  so  driven  in  and  turned  at 
their  creation,  that  they  together  should  constitute 
such  a  sphere  with  contrary  circuits  in  its  opposite 
hemispheres,  and  such  would  be  precisely  the  atom 
which  we  shall  subsequently  see  is  needed  in  filling 
out  the  uses  the  atoms  must  subserve  in  material 
nature. 

But  such  conception  cannot  so  definitely  be  made 
and  put  in  pure  intellectual  contemplation,  as  to  give 
the  thorough  insight  needed  for  an  adequate  compre- 
hension of  the  atom  in  its  coming  subserviences  in 
universal  nature.  We  must  necessarily  take  it,  as 
if  the  Creator  made  it  in  successive  instalments,  and 
follow  out  the  process  as  it  were  step  by  step.  He 
may  instantly  create  it  in  his  own  way ;  while  to  our 
comprehension,  we  must  carry  the  individualizing 
bond  through  the  process  to  the  result,  item  by  item, 
in  our  way  of  insight.  This  will  make  it  necessary 
also  to  contemplate  the  Atom,  as  well  as  the  Uni- 
verse, to  have  a  threefold  agency  in  its  Creation; 
viz.,  the  voluntary  idealizing,  and  realizing,  and  con- 
sistently fashioning  the  full  product,  and  which  can- 
not be  contemplated  as  eff'ected  by  a  purely  sim- 
ple act. 

We  follow  this  method :  The  first  created  force  is 
that  of  two  impulses  antagonizing  in  their  common 
limit,  and  which  is  midway  in  the  line  of  the  two 
12 


178  KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 

impulses  as  they  come  together  in  contact  from 
wholly  indefinite  distances.  The  next  created  force 
takes  precisely  the  place  of  the  first,  both  in  its  im- 
pulses and  antagonizing  limit,  the  first  having  been 
made  to  revolve  on  its  mid-point  to  give  place  for 
the  second.  Thus  the  two  forces  of  course  intersect 
each  other's  impulses  in  their  common  place  of  an- 
tagonizing, and  then  both  are  made  further  to  revolve 
together  on  their  common  mid-point  to  give  the  same 
place  again  for  the  third  force  to  be  created  in  it,  and 
which  third  force  also  intersects  the  first  two  as  they 
had  intersected  each  other,  and  so  onwards  succes- 
sively. But  the  revolving,  instead  of  being  in  a 
plane,  is  designedly  from  the  start  made  to  com- 
mence turning  across  the  plane,  so  that  in  half  a 
complete  revolution  the  impulses  of  the  first  force 
coming  up  to,  shall  just  pass  by,  the  impulses  of 
the  last  made  force,  and  intersect  them  across  the 
plane  in  the  common  centre.  Then,  continued  revolv- 
ings  and  creations  of  new  forces  w^ill  give  to  the  mov- 
ing impulses  a  spiral  course,  and  from  the  contrary 
movements  of  the  impulses  that  stand  on  opposite  sides 
of  the  plane  an  opposite-handed  helical  movement  also, 
till  at  length  the  impulses  of  the  first  made  force  will 
come  to  stand  perpendicularly  to  the  plane  at  its  centre, 
and  a  sphere  will  have  been  completely  constituted. 
No  further  forces  can  then  enter,  for  the  revolving 
is  now  blocked  in  the  fulness  of  both  hemispheres. 
The  revolving  force  which  began  also  stops  in  it,  but 
to  which  we  will  turn   our   attention   again  in  the 


THE   ATOM   HA.S  ITS   NATURE.  179 

Third    Division.     The    complete    spherical    Atom   is 
thus  constituted  in  its  own  peculiarity. 

5.  Such  constituted  Atom  has  its  own  Nature. — 
Nature  (a  nascor)  is  a  being  horn,  and  implies  a 
perpetual  passing  out  into  new  forms  of  existence. 
Thie  new  births  are  outcoming  events  from  former 
^growths,  and  the  whole  is  but  an  evolution  or  devel- 
opment of  what  was  originally  given  from  the  super- 
natural. The  supernatural  is  spiritual,  and  has  in 
cit  neither  birth  nor  growth,  but  it  originates  from 
its.elf  that  which  perpetually  passes  out  in  changing 
forms  of  being.  The  successive  births  were  put 
originally  in  its  constitution,  and  nothing  comes  from 
Nature  which  was  not  from  the  first  put  into  nature. 
Hence  we  say  of  any  overt  existing  thing  that  it 
works,  acts  out  its  changes,  according  to  its  nature. 
The  connected  necessities  of  cause  and  effect  pass  on 
according  to  inner  constitutional  law,  and  from  itself 
there  is  no  alternative  to  the  order  of  development. 

And  here  we  note  of  the  so  constituted  Atom,  that 
it  has  already  in  it  that  which  to  the  insight  of 
reason  determines  its  outcoming  births  and  growths. 
Its  nature  is  already  put  within  it,  and  this  has  come 
from  the  independent  self-originating  source  above 
it.  Nature  finds  its  beginning  in  the  atom,  while 
all  above  the  atom  is  supernatural  spirit. 
.-  The  impulses  are  overt  activities  with  given  in- 
iriasic  energy  of  will  from  the  central  spiritual 
source,  and   their  antagonism   in  each  pair  involves 


180  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

action  and  reaction ;  and  so  their  respective  places 
of  antagonism  cannot  be  mere  plane,  but  complex 
implication  in  a  limited  form  of  upper  and  lower 
sides,  and  outer  and  inner  standing,  necessitating 
the  force  in  each  case  to  be  a  bodily  plate,  filling 
and  holding  its  definite  place  impenetrable  by  any 
other.  But  all  these  single  plates  of  force  are  turned 
every  Avay  into  a  sphere  as  they  constitute  the  Atom, 
and  which  in  their  composition  must  constitute  the 
centre  of  the  atom  to  be  a  core  to  its  body  of  in- 
tenser  energy,  and  the  periphery  of  the  atom  to  be  a 
shell  of  diminished  energy,  in  the  one  solid  bod}^,  as- 
the  plates  of  force  every  way  crowd  each  the  other 
towards  its  own  centre,  which  is  their  common  centre, 
and  where  the  intensest  energy  must  be,  and  this  cen- 
tre surrounded  by  its  shell  of  weaker  intensity.  But 
outside  the  shell  of  substantial  forces  as  atomic  body 
single  impulses  come  in  on  all  sides  from  indefinite 
distances,  as  simple  spiritual  activities,  impalpable  to 
any  sense,  and  capable  of  manifestation  only  in  the 
movements  of  such  forces,  as  from  time  to  time  may 
be  thrust  in  from  without  among  the  lines  of  their 
agency.  The  Atom  has  its  determined  space,  but  its 
surrounding  impulses  give  no  determinate  place,  and 
only  come  in  towards  the  place  from  distances  wholly 
indefinite. 

Such  concentrated,  self-balanced,  self-contained 
Atom  is  an  independent  miscrocosm;  a  little  world 
distinct  in  itself,  substantially  existing  in  its  own 
static  forces,  and  possessing  its  own  intrinsic  laws  of 


FORCE   DETERMINES  INERTIA.  J81 

causal  efficiency,  either  as  acting  upon  or  reacting 
against  other  existing  atoms.  It  fills  its  own  place, 
and  excludes  all  else  from  its  place,  and  has  ever  in 
it  its  own  unchanged  identity,  however  removed  from 
place  to  place  or  compounded  with  other  atoms.  Its 
intrinsic  essence  is  mechanical  force,  and  its  action 
and  reaction  must  ever  be  according  to  the  necessities 
given  in  its  constitution.  Knowing  essentially  what 
it  is,  we  can  beforehand  say  of  it  what  the  old  philoso- 
phy determined  of  Universal  Nature,  that  to  it  non 
datur  casus;  non  datur  fatum;  non  datur  saltus; 
non  datur  vacuum.  Its  Maker  is  not  excluded  by  it, 
nor  precluded  from  changing  or  annihilating  it,  for  he 
has  access  to  its  being  at  its  central  source ;  but  its 
constitution,  and  law  of  being  and  working,  nothing 
can  modify  except  the  spirit  who  originates  it,  and  to 
that  creating  Spirit  all  atoms  stand  in  jitter  depen- 
dency and  complete  subserviency. 

6.  The  Forces  constituting  the  Atom  determine 
WHAT  is  its  Inertia.  —  Inertia  is  literally  negation  of 
energy,  and  in  this  literal  meaning  it  is  quite  commonly 
applied  to  matter ;  and  so  matter  is  held  to  be  passive, 
and  itself  dead  to  all  energy.  Yet  matter  does  stand 
against  and  obstruct  other  matter,  and  does  also  inter- 
work  and  change  other  matter ;  and  this  fact  contra- 
dicts its  assumption  of  passivity  or  dead  inefficacy.  It 
is  then  assumed,  that  while  matter  is  itself  passive  and 
dead,  there  is,  distinct  from  matter,  force  apphed  to  or 
put  in  matter,  and  this  force  makes  the  matter  obstruct 


182  KNOWLEDGE   OF    CREATION. 

or  change  other  matter.  But  here  conies  in  an  absur- 
dity in  the  thought  itself,  for  if  matter  be  dead  and 
inert  it  is  inconceivable  that  force  may  be  applied  to 
it  in  any  way  so  as  to  act  on,  or  in,  or  by  it.  It  can 
neither  receive,  nor  retain,  nor  transmit  force.  The 
matter  is  taken  to  be  wholly  inert,  and  thus  the  force, 
and  not  the  passive  matter,  must  be  the  doer  of  all  that 
is  done,  and  the  matter  is  as  nothing  aside  from  the 
applied  force. 

Denying  all  energy  to  matter  both  contradicts 
experience,  —  for  when  matter  is  stricken  it  strikes 
back  an  equal  blow,  —  and  is  absurd  in  thought,  since 
it  assumes  that  passivity  may  modify  force.  It  can- 
not, then,  be  understood  of  inertia  that  the  matter 
is  destitute  of  energy.  The  inertia  of  matter  is  in- 
dicated in  this,  that  the  matter  does  not  change  its 
state  of  rest  or  of  motion  from  itself  When  at  rest 
it  so  remains,  and  when  in  motion  it  so  continues, 
till  something  from  without  is  done  to  it ;  and  then 
the  force,  which  overcomes  rest  or  modifies  motion, 
does  either  of  these  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  mass 
of  matter.  Such  facts  seemed  to  evince  that  matter 
itself  resisted  change  of  state,  and  this  dull  stub- 
bornness was  called  inertia;  and  yet,  as  reluctance 
to  change  carried  in  it  a  latent  power  to  hold  itself 
in  the  same  state,  the  very  inertia  had  a  hold-back 
energy  which  was  called  visinertice.  This  apparently 
contradictory  notion  of  an  inertness,  made  and  con- 
tinued so  by  its  own  energy,  has  kept  the  conceptions 
of  rest  and  motion,  and  the  multiplication  of  motion 


FORCE   DETERMINES   INERTIA.  183 

by  mass  in  momentum,  helplessly  obscure  and  vague, 
always  perplexing  and  often  deluding  and  perverting. 

But  when,  in  the  insight  of  reason,  we  know  the 
material  atom  to  be  constituted  of  antagonist  forces, 
it  is  quite  competent  to  see  exactly  what,  in  the 
resting  or  moving  matter,  inertia  is;  and,  as  pre- 
viously considered,  that  it  is  determinative  of  the 
Third  Law  of  Motion.  The  material  atom  is  a  sphere 
of  static  forces,  with  their  impulses  persistently  rest- 
ing against  each  other  at  the  centre  in  equal  ener- 
gies, and  as  the  energies  are  in  constant  balance 
the  matter  is  in  constant  rest.  But  an  added  excess 
of  energy  on  any  side  deranges  the  balance,  and  a 
movement  of  the  matter  must  ensue,  and  the  same 
continued  excess  must  necessitate  the  same  per- 
sistent rate  of  motion.  Yet  as  the  applied  excess 
of  energy  must  reach  and  overbalance  each  rest- 
ing pair  of  energies  in  their  intensities  by  divid- 
ing itself  among  them  all,  so  the  rate  of  motion 
must  be  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  aggregate  balanced 
energies  in  tlieir  intensities,  and  in  this  is  the 
essence  of  inertia ;  since  proportioned  to  the  bal- 
anced energies  in  their  intensities  is  the  hinder- 
ance  to  overcoming  their  rest ;  and  the  same  applies, 
on  the  other  hand,  in  hindering  motion  when  the 
matter  has  its  energies  unbalanced. 

So  matter  is  never  inert,  for  its  essence  is  energy  ; 
but  the  intensity  of  its  energy  makes  and  measures 
the  hinderance  to  any  modifications  of  its  state  of 
rest   or   motion,  and  that   is   known  as  its   inertia; 


184  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

since  the  excess  of  energy  that  moves  from  rest, 
or  restores  to  rest,  must  come  from  without  itself, 
and  in  that  the  matter  is  passive. 

7.  The  Atom  determines  Gravity.  —  It  is  the 
crowning  glory  of  Inductive  Science  that  it  found  the 
Law  of  Gravity.  The  name  of  Newton  is  immortal 
from  this  discovery.  It  can  detract  from  the  philos- 
ophy nothing,  nor  bring  any  disparagement  to  the 
fame  of  the  Philosopher,  to  see  precisely  the  degree 
in  which  that  discovery  has  increased  our  knowledge 
of  nature,  "^he  hypothesis  suggested  to  Newton's 
mind,  by  the  falling  apple  or  otherwise,  was,  that  in 
all  matter  there  is  a  tendency  towards  all  other  mat- 
ter ;  and  when  this  was  extensively  tried  by  experi- 
ence, especially  in  application  to  the  complicated 
variations  in  the  moon's  m.otion,  there  was  no  hesita- 
tion in  accepting  the  hypothesis  as  fact ;  and  the  ratio 
of  this  tendency  was  further  found  to  be  directly  as 
the  quantity  of  matter,  and  inversely  as  the  square  of 
the  distance.  Such  general  formula  enables  us  to  go 
out  to  the  matter  of  all  worlds,  and  determine  its  mo- 
tions and  the  places  it  must  occupy  in  reference  to 
other  matter.  In  this  broad  fact  we  comprehend  a 
large  amount  of  other  particular  facts,  and  bind  the 
many  in  unity  within  this  one  fact.  We  hence  term 
it  the  law  of  gravity,  not  because  we  know  any  prin- 
ciple that  so  determines  it,  but  because  it  is  a  broader 
fact  than  we  have  elsewhere  found,  and  more  single 
facts  may  be  included  by  it.     But  this  broader  fact 


THE  ATOM  DETERMINES  GRAVITY.  185 

has  no  interpretation.  For  all  we  know,  the  propor- 
tions might  have  been  otherwise,  and  we  can  find  no 
reason  that  guided  in  the  making. 

Sometimes  the  explication  is  sought  by  saying  that 
matter  seelcs  other  matter  in  this  ratio,  as  if  the  appre- 
hension of  some  sentient  craving  would  relieve  the 
mystery.  This  assumed  social  affinity  between  por- 
tions of  matter  is  in  the  same  way,  as  it  was  early 
said  of  the  water  rising  in  the  pump  when  the  air 
within  was  exhausted,  only  as  this  last  was  a  repulsive 
sentiment,  that  nature  abhorred  a  vacuum.  But  this 
higher  fact  of  gravity,  becoming  known,  included  and 
expounded  the  rising  of  the  water  in  the  pump.  The 
gravitating  energy  of  the  atmosphere  upon  the  water 
about  the  pump  forced  this  within  the  vacuum  made 
in  the  pump,  and  we  now  smile  derisively  at  the  hor- 
ror of  nature  for  a  vacuum,  which  belonged  to  the 
unreasoning  simplicity  of  an  older  philosophy.  But 
when  we  talk  of  the  attraction  of  matter  for  other 
matter,  and  that  the  atmosphere  seeks  the  earth,  we 
use  the  same  kind  of  false  analogy,  and  manifest  as 
ignorant  a  simplicity  as  the  men  of  an  earlier  philos- 
ophy. The  atmosphere  no  more  seeks  the  earth,  and 
the  earth  no  more  attracts  the  atmosphere,  than  the 
pump  sucked  water  because  nature  abhorred  a  vacuum. 
Seeking  and  abhorring,  attracting  and  sucking,  each 
involves  the  same  gross  solecism.  The  pump  removed 
the  air  from  its  inside  space,  and  the  outside  force 
pushed  the  water  into  it ;  and  two  material  forces,  put 
within  the  energies  of  their  component  impulses,  have 


186  KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 

th-eir  contiguous  energies  diminished,  and  their  oppo- 
site energies  augmented,  and  the  two  forces  are  thus 
pushed  towards  each  other  by  their  own  energies. 
As  the  determination  of  the  atmospheric  pressure  re- 
vealed the  power  of  the  pump,  so  will  the  determina- 
tion of  atomic  energies  reveal  the  power  of  gravity. 

And  yet  there  will  remain  a  great  difference  in  the 
two  cases,  with  the  advantage  immensely  on  the  side 
of  the  latter.  The  former  found  its  explication  in  a 
higher  fact,  but  that  higher  fact  was  left  utterly  unin- 
telligible, and  the  whole  was  as  truly  mysterious  as 
ever.  No  fact  can  be  explained  by  another  fact  that 
is  itself  inscrutable.  But  in  this  latter  case  of  gravity, 
we  do  not  leave  it  an  unex pounded  fact,  nor  merely 
run  it  back  if  we  could  under  some  bigger  fact,  but 
we  determine  this  fact  by  the  known  eternal  law  of 
its  constitution.  We  read  in  the  fact  how  the  Maker 
made  it.  If  God's  created  matter  is  in  essence  sub- 
stantial force,  then  must  every  atom  press  towards 
every  other  atom,  directly  as  the  intensity  of  the 
force,  and  inversely  as  the  square  of  its  distance. 

A  clear  contemplation  of  the  constituted  atom  un- 
answerably verifies  the  law  in  both  sides  of  the  ratio. 
The  solid  centre  and  shell  of  the  atom  is  on  all  sides 
surrounded  by  the  simple  impulses  which  constitute 
the  atom,  in  their  antagonisms  at  the  centre,  and  their 
interpenetration  by  their  action  and  reaction.  The 
.  solid  atom  has  every  way  its  surrounding  impulses. 
These  impulses  work  in  upon  the  atom  from  wholly 
indefinite  distances,  and  all  make  together  a  sphere  of 


THE   ATOM    DETERMINES   GRAVITY.  187 

utterly  an  indefinite  magnitude.  The  impulses  out 
from  the  atom  have  nothing  that  can  affect  the  sense 
and  give  appearance,  except  as  something  may  be  in- 
terposed which  shall  constitute  an  antagonism  at  the 
point  of  interposition.  The  impulses  all  work  to  the 
atom,  and  can  never  set  back  from  the  atom.  The  in- 
tensity of  energy  in  the  impulses  determines  the  den- 
sity of  the  atom,  and  its  volume,  and  these  make  up 
its  mass  or  quantity  of  matter.  Inasmuch  as  all  the 
impulses  are  balanced  in  the  atom,  so  the  energy  of 
impulse  in  any  line  upon  the  atom  is  equal  to  that  in 
every  other  line  ;  and  as  the  aggregate  of  all  intensity 
is  the  quantity  of  matter,  so  the  energy  towards  the 
atom  in  any  one  line,  and  also  the  aggregation  of  en- 
ergy in  all  lines,  is  in  each  case  as  the  quantity  of 
matter.  But  this  impulse  in  the  one  line  to  the  atom 
is  but  another  name  for  gravity ;  hence  the  energy  of 
gravity  in  all  matter  must  be  directly  as  the  quantity 
of  matter. 

In  reference  to  the  other  aspect  of  the  ratio  we  note 
that  from  the  nature  of  the  given  force  the  atom  is  a 
sphere  with  its  intenser  solid  core,  and  its  less  intense 
though  solid  peripheral  shell,  so  made  by  the  inter- 
penetrations  of  the  forces  in  their  plates  and  the  com- 
position of  their  pressures  spherically  in  common. 
Hence  the  shell  of  the  atom,  inappreciable  in  thick- 
ness, enspheres  its  central  core,  and  in  all  its  parts 
presses  upon  the  central  core  with  the  same  intensity,, 
in  the  aggregate,  as  the  intensity  of  antagonism  in 
the  central  core.     Ajid  then  again,  at  an  inappreciable 


188  KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 

distance  out  from  the  body  of  the  shell,  the  surround- 
ing contiguous  impulses  act  in  upon  the  shell,  in  an 
inappreciable  expansion  of  each,  enabling  all  to  sur- 
round and  fully  ensphere  the  shell,  but  in  no  action 
and  reaction  laterally  each  with  each,  and  so  consti- 
tuting a  shell  of  impulses,  not  bodily  force,  and  yet  in 
i!"s  aggregate  intensity  pressing  upon  the  atomic  bod- 
ily shell  to  an  equal  amount  as  that  pressed  upon  the 
core  of  the  atom,  and  equally  also  as  the  intensity  of  all 
the  forces  is  in  the  core  of  the  atom  ;  so  that  the  in- 
tensity of  this  shell  of  expanding  impulses  is,  in  the 
aggregate,  as  the  aggregate  intensity  of  the  shell  of 
the  atom,  and  the  whole  expanded  shell  of  impulses 
together  presses  upon  the  shell  of  the  atom  with  the 
same  intensity  as  that  whole  shell  presses  upon  the 
core.  And  in  the  same  way,  at  any  inappreciable 
remove  from  the  last  contemplated  shell,  there  is  con- 
templated another  concentric  shell  ensphering  the  for- 
mer with  an  intensity  in  the  aggregate  equal  to  that 
in  the  aggregate  of  each  interior  shell,  and  acting  di- 
rectly upon  the  shell  next  within  it,  with  the  same  in- 
tensity in  the  aggregate  as  that  inner  shell  has,  in  the 
aggregate,  acted  upon  its  next  interior  shell.  In  this 
manner,  all  the  surrounding  impulses  counterworking 
at  the  central  core  constitute  an  indefinite  number  of 
concentric  shells,  and  each  one  receiving  the  whole 
energy  towards  the  centre  in  an  equal  degree  of  ag- 
gregate intensity  with  every  other  shell.  The  inten- 
sity of  impulse  at  each  point  in  any  shell,  or  surface 
of  points,  is  of  course  inversely  as  the  surface.     But 


THE   ATOM  DETERMINES  GRAY 


V'       OF  THE 


the  surfaces  of  spheres  are  directly  as  the  squares  of 
their  distances  from  their  centres  ;  therefore  the  amount 
of  intensity  of  impulse  at  each  point  of  a  shell,  or 
surface,  is  inversely  as  the  square  of  its  distance  from 
the  centre.  And  as  this  intensity  of  impulse  is  but 
another  name  for  gravity,  therefore  gravity  must  be 
inversely  as  the  square  of  the  distance. 

The  law  of  gravity  being  such,  in  the  very  consti- 
tution of  the  atom  itself,  the  results  of  the  action  of 
the  atoms  among  themselves  are  alike  necessary  and 
readily  determined.  The  gravitating  simple  impulses 
around  all  atoms,  for  an  indefinite  distance,  must  se- 
cure that  any  two  atoms  shall  each  be  affected  by  the 
other  according  to  the  universal  laws  of  motion.  As 
the  solid  atoms  stand  each  within  the  other's  gravi- 
tating energy,  and  the  single  impulses  of  each  come 
into  itself  from  beyond  the  other,  and  these  impulses 
must  be  cut  off  from  working  on  its  own  atom,  and 
converted  to  an  impulsive  action  upon  the  other  in 
each  case  so  far  as  the  impulses  reach  beyond  the 
other,  and  such  working  must  be  according  to  their 
energies  directly  and  inversely  as  the  square  of  the 
distance  one  from  the  other,  the  result  must  be 
that  the  atoms  shall  be  pushed  towards  each  other, 
and  finally  meet,  at  some  point  determined  by  the 
compounding  of  their  momenta,  and  which  must 
be  between  their  original  positions,  and  then  the 
atoms  must  stand  at  rest  in  contact  with  each 
other.  Freely  moving  in  space,  the  gravitating  en- 
ergy, in   many  atoms   combined,    must    bring   them 


190  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

together  equally  about  some  common  centre,  and 
ensphere  them ;  and  in  the  case  of  rigid  bodies  in 
masses,  each  will  have  somewhere  its  own  centre  of 
gravity,  and  act  upon  others  in  the  line  of  their  cen- 
tres of  gravity,  and  the  whole  on  coming  together 
must  collocate  in  such  place  as  their  own  fixed  forms 
shall  allow  them  to  fill.  The  Atom  has  in  its  consti- 
tution every  fact  of  Gravity. 

8.  The  Atom  from  its  Constitution  is  a  Magnet. 
—  The  construction  of  the  atom  in  circular  move- 
ment of  the  component  impulses  on  their  points  of 
antagonism,  and  by  a  slight  deflection  at  the  start 
making  the  circular  motion  to  be  spiral,  and  in  the 
contrary  movements  of  the  opposing  impulses  making 
the  whole  movement  to  be  also  helical,  secured  the 
shutting  the  atom  in  upon  itself,  and  thereby  ren- 
dering its  intrinsic  integrity  inviolable  ;  and  also  set 
the  impulses  in  positions  to  act  every  way  in  upon 
its  centre,  and  thereby  determining  to  its  perpetual 
gravity.  A  further  result,  for  its  subsequent  utility 
in  the  ends  of  creation  which  we  are  now  to  notice, 
is  the  bi-polar  agency  in  the  atom  which  is  thus  made 
persistent  in  it. 

The  gravitating  impulses  as  spiritual  activities 
come  in  to  their  central  core  with  a  returnless  flow, 
and  thus  perpetuate  the  solid  matter  of  the  atom  in 
their  central  place  of  mutual  action  and  reaction, 
while  external  to  the  solid  body  of  the  atom,  the  im- 
pulses are  in  flowing  energies  that  can  reveal  them- 


THE   ATOM   IS   A   MAGNET.  191 

selves  to  sense,  only  by  their  effect  upon  palpable 
matter  which  may  come  within  their  sphere  of  action. 
So  now,  also,  we  are  to  notice  another  form  of  energy, 
which  has  no  bodily  consistency,  and  is  purely  spirits 
ual  activity  in  persistent  flowing  progression,  with 
no  set-back  upon  its  originating  source ;  even  as  the 
spiritual  activity  which  impels  the  stone  I  throw, 
never  returns  in  reaction  upon  the  source  it  sprang 
from.  The  antagonizing  impulses  constituting  the 
overt  forces  in  the  atom,  and  the  energy  turning 
them  as  they  are  created  in  their  helical  circuits,  are 
the  products  respectively  of  two  distinct  wills  in  the 
Absolute  Reason,  and  this  helical  turning  of  the  bi- 
polar energy,  distinct  from  the  gravitating  energy, 
is  that  which  exclusively  we  now  contemplate.  This 
acts  upon  the  gravitating  energies  in  turning  them, 
but  does  not  augment,  nor  diminissh,  nor  divert  from 
their  central  incoming,  the  energies  of  the  gravitat- 
ing impulses.  It  carries  them  through  the  helical 
circuits,  but  does  not  identify  itself  with  them,  and 
may  be  of  less  or  greater  energy  w^ithout  at  all  mod- 
ifying the  degrees  of  the  gravitating  energies.  Rela- 
tively to  the  sphere  of  the  atom,  the  bi-polar  energy 
and  the  gravitating  energies  would  seem  necessarily 
to  be  of  equal  ratios,  but  relatively  to  each  other  the 
bi-polar  and  gravitating  energies  may  differ  in  any 
intensity  of  the  wills  making  them.  The  bi-polar 
energies  must  find  their  balance  not  as  the  gravi- 
tating, in  direct  antagonist  action  and  reaction,  but 
in  the  crowding  contiguity  of  the   impulses  at  the 


192  KNOWLEDGE   OP   CREATION. 

atomic  polar  diameters,  and  can  thus  never  consti- 
tute the  poles  to  be  solid  bodies  as  the  gravitating 
impnlses  do  the  atom  at  the  centre. 

In  further  noting  determined  results  from  the  atom- 
ic construction,  it  is  plain  that  the  bi-polar  energy, 
which  we  henceforth  know  as  Magnetism,  must  stand 
neutral  in  polar  tendencies  in  the  equatorial  plane, 
inasmuch  as  each  way  from  it  the  polaritj^  proceeds 
in  opposite  bearings,  and  in  the  completion  of  the 
atom  will  crowd  the  helical  circuits  more  or  less 
closely  together  from  the  equator  to  the  poles ;  and 
at  each  polar  point  it  must  crowd  wath  an  intensity 
which  equilibrates  the  energy  of  its  whole  hemisphere, 
and  be  directly  proportional  in  any  point  of  any  mag- 
netic meridian  as  is  the  approach  from  the  equator  to 
the  poles.  As  the  magnetic  energy  reaches  the  poles 
in  the  opposite  hemispheres  by  opposite-handed  hel- 
ices, there  must  be  specific  distinction  of  polarities, 
and  as  attained  in  experience,  they  have  already  been 
discriminated  as  Austral  and  Boreal  polarities. 

The  contrary  working  of  the  polarities  must  de- 
termine the  mutual  action  of  separate  atoms,  standing 
within  the  respective  spheres  of  their  magnetic  in- 
fluences operating  through  opposing  hemispheres. 
In  such  cases  of  mutual  approach,  in  reference  re- 
spectively to  each  other,  when  two  hemispheres  of 
different  atoms  act  concurrently  in  their  polar  ener- 
gies, they  must  work  in  to  each  other,  and  draw  the 
atoms  together;  but  when  they  act  adversely,  they 
must   work   to   exclude   each   other,  and   throw  the 


THE  ATOM  IS   A   MAGNET.  193 

atom^  apart.  And  as  the  boreal  is  in  opposite-handed 
heh'city  to  the  austral,  the  polarities  presented  on 
the  approach  of  two  atoms  must  determine  their  at- 
tractions and  repulsions.  When  the  similar  poles  of 
each  atom  are  presented  each  to  each,  their  magnetic 
circuits  come  in  contact  on  their  opposite  atomic 
sides,  and,  of  course,  with  opposite  magnetic  courses, 
and  so  running  against  each  other,  they  must  push 
each  the  other  off,  and  hence  the  universal  law  is 
determined  that  like  poles  must  repel  each  other ; 
but  when  unlike  poles  approach  each  other,  the 
course  of  polarity  runs  in  to  each  other,  and  pulls 
the  atoms  together,  and  the  universal  law  is  deter- 
mined that  unlike  poles  attract  each  other.  When 
either  pole  is  applied  to  the  magnetic  equator,  its 
neutrality  can  effect  neither,  and  the  polarities  pass 
on  in  their  own  courses. 

This  bi-polar  energy  in  opposing  currents  must 
also  give  its  determinations  to  the  magnetic  Dip. 
Two  atoms  standing  near  to  each  other  with  their 
equators  in  the  same  plane  will  attract  or  repel 
equally  in  their  respective  opposite  hemispheres, 
and  their  polar  diameters  must  stand  parallel  each 
to  each.  But  when  atoms  are  combined  in  larger 
and  smaller  bodies,  and  the  bodies  stand  to  each 
other  in  such  disparity  of  Mass  that  their  polar 
action  appears  only  in  the  smaller  body,  if  then  the 
smaller  body  be  suspended  on  its  centre  of  gravity, 
thereby  holding  in  check  the  gravitating  results, 
the  magnetic  energy  will  alone  work  and  determine 
13 


194  KNOWLEDGE   OP   CREATION. 

its  dip  or  inclination  to  the  larger  magnet.  When 
put  between  the  equator  and  the  pole  of  the  larger, 
the  magnetic  axis  of  the  smaller  most  incline  to  that 
of  the  larger,  from  the  inequality  of  attractions  or 
repulsions  mutually  between  their  respective  hemi- 
spheres; and  the  inclination  must  be  the  greater  as 
the  smaller  magnet  approaches  the  pole  of  the  larger 
magnet,  and  perpendicular  to  the  axis  when  brought 
to  the  pole. 

Such  combinations  of  free  atoms  will  make  the 
bodies  magnetic ;  and  if  the  atomic  polarity  is  hin- 
dered by  the  gravitating  energy,  or  by  cohesion,  the 
bodies  may  be  in  a  quiescent  state  when  their  polarity 
is  neutralized,  and  indiffeTent  when  their  atoms  are 
fixed.  The  presence  of  an  acting  magnet  may  dis- 
turb the  equilibrium,  and  the  quiescent  magnet  then 
becomes  active  by  induction.  The  body  holding  its 
atoms  so  fixed  as  to  move  by  induction  tardily,  and 
hold  its  magnetism  in  protracted  action  when  the 
inducing  magnet  is  withdrawn,  is  said  to  have  coer- 
cive force^  and  the  more  ready  induction  by  repeated 
shocks,  like  strokes  upon  a  steel  bar,  is  well  ex- 
plained by  so  freeing  the  atoms  When  the  induc- 
tion is  immediate,  and  quiescence  comes  at  once  on 
removing  the  inducing  magnet,  the  body  is  said  to 
have  no  coercive  f or ce^  and  the  giving  coercive  force  by 
condensing,  as  hammering  a  soft  iron  bar,  is  explained 
by  the  fixing  of  the  component  atoms.  And  so  bodies 
with  different  degrees  of  coercive  force  in  patch- 
es,  may   by   the   inducing   magnet    give   consectdive 


THE   ETHEREAL   ATOM.  195 

polarity  —  as  the  patches  may  favor.  The  polarity 
of  the  inducing  magnet  must  determine  the  different 
poles  in  the  induced  by  the  control  given  to  its  inner 
atoms.  As  the  atoms  freely  determine  the  body  to 
be  a  magnet,  so  the  breaking  the  body  in  fragments 
will  by  its  atoms  make  each  piece  a  magnet.  Equal- 
ities of  gravitating  and  magnetic  energies  must  give 
coincident  gravitating,  magnetic,  and  geometric  axes ; 
and  any  inequalities  among  the  atoms,  in  this  way, 
must  make  these  axes  discordant. 


SECOND  DIVISION. 

DIREMPTIVE  FORCE. 

1.  The  Constitution  of  the  Dirempttve  Atom. — 
The  creative  process  in  diremption  is  the  reverse 
of  that  in  antagonism.  An  explosion  from  one  source 
would  give  distinct  diremptive  forces,  each  of  which 
would  be  an  outsending  of  two  expulses  in  contrary 
directions,  and  all  of  which  would  fill  a  sphere  with 
expulses  from  a  centre  in  every  direction.  The 
ejecting  source  is  a  spiritual  agency,  and  yet  the 
expulses  ejected  must  be  contemplated  as  reciprocal 
in  their  outworking,  and  that  the  two  opposite  ex- 
pulses make  force  only  as  they  mutually  expel  each 
other. 


196  KNOWLEDGE   OP   CREATION. 

In  the  contemplation  of  antagonist  Force  we  assist^ 
ed  ourselves  by  figuring  the  activity  which  casts  a 
stone  from  the  earth,  and  we  may  here  help  ourselves 
further  by  continuing  to  use  the  same  figure.  The 
muscular  activity  in  the  hand  against  the  stone  is 
balanced  by  the  muscular  activity  of  the  foot  against 
the  earth,  and  the  earth  and  stone  are  expelled  from 
each  other  in  equilibrated  momentum  by  the  same 
spiritual  agency,  and  the  mutual  disparting  of  the 
expulses  in  that  source  is  one  force  in  two  outgoing 
directions.  As,  then,  the  man's  spirit  works  both 
ways  from  the  mid-source  in  disparting  the  stone 
and  the  earth,  so  we  now  contemplate  the  Absolute 
Spirit  putting  forth  two  simple  activities  balancing 
themselves  in  mutual  expulsiveness.  In  the  diremp- 
tive  limit  is  force,  and  each  expulse  has  an  energy 
measured  by  the  central  force.  We  contemplate, 
also,  the  expulses  as  sent  out  from  the  manifesting 
Agency  constantly  in  one  and  the  same  place,  and 
as  created,  to  be  turned  also  out  of  this  place,  by  the 
forming  Agency,  in  revolving  upon  their  diremptive 
limit,  as  the  antagonist  forces  were  perpetually  cre- 
ated and  moved.  The  forming  spirit  so  directs  them 
at  the  start,  that  in  making  a  complete  revolution, 
the  expulses  of  the  first  made  force  just  pass  those 
of  the  last  made,  and  then  proceed  each  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  plane  formed,  and  in  contrary  directions 
respectively,  till  they  fill  the  hemispheres,  and  finish 
a  completed  sphere,  whose  polar  diameter  is  then 
these  first  made  diremptive  expulses,  standing  exact- 


THE  ETHEREAL  ATOM.  197 

ly  perpendicular  to  their  first  position  in  the  plane. 
The  expulses  are  thus  all  balanced,  and  constitute 
a  diremptive  Atom,  independent  and  complete  as  the 
former  antagonist  Atom.  ^ 

In  diremption  the  expulses  go  out,  as  in  antago- 
nism the  impulses  came  in,  and  they  interpulsate  by 
their  action  and  reaction  as  the  impulses  interpene- 
trated by  their  action  and  reaction ;  and  so  the  limit 
of  diremption  is  not  a  plane,  but  a  bodily  plate, 
through  and  through  implicated  by  the  expulses 
commingling  from  opposite  sides.  As  the  antagonist 
atom  was  a  sphere  with  central  intenser  core  and 
peripheral  less  intense  shell,  so  the  diremptive  atom 
in  reverse  working  will  be  an  impervious  sphere  of 
intenser  diremption  at  the  core,  and  less  diremptive 
energy  in  the  shell,  and  the  expulses  going  ofi"  from 
the  shell  in  every  direction  indefinitely,  in  the  same 
inverse  ratio  to  the  distance  as  the  impulses  came 
gravitating  inward.  The  antagonist  we  shall  know 
as  Material,  and  the  diremptive  as  Ethereal  Atom; 
and  while  material  atoms  have  weight,  the  ethereal 
atoms  will  be  imponderable.  The  body  of  the  ethe- 
real atom  from  its  implicated  interpulsations  is  the 
common  source  for  the  outgoing  expulses,  and  any 
hinderance  to  the  expulsion  on  any  side  will  pro- 
portionally augment  the  expulsion  in  all  other  sides, 
with  the  perpetual  tendency  to  restore  the  equilib-- 
rium  by  the  same  energy  as  that  of  the  assailing 
obstacle,  and  must  thereby  be  made  thoroughly 
elastic;  while  the  material  atom  can  give  no  expul- 


198  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

sions,  and  must  thus  be  utterly  non-elastic.  Un- 
mingled  with  material  atoms,  the  pure  ether  any 
way  stricken  must  perpetually  vibrate  through  all 
its  sphere,  while  interposed  material  atoms  will  ob- 
struct vibrations.  Two  Atoms  of  opposite  kinds  and 
equal  energies  will  impel  and  expel  each  other  in 
equal  measure,  and  thus  lie  together  at  rest  side  by 
side,  and  any  amount  of  ether  tending  to  diffusion 
will  be  held  in  place  by  equal  external  material 
energies.  The  ethereal  atom  is  the  converse  of  the 
material,  and  they  may  drive  or  dead-lock  each  other 
according  to  their  unequal  or  equal  energies. 

2.  Ethereal  Atoms  occasion  Heat  and  Light. — 
As  the  still  Air  has  no  sound,  iand  while  in  vibration 
is  yet  noiseless,  except  as  the  vibrations  strike  the 
ear,  so  the  ether  has  neither  warmth  nor  color,  except 
as  its  vibrations  strike  the  organ,  and  put  its  living 
apparatus  in  operation.  The  objective  is  qualified  in 
our  subjective  sensation,  and  it  is  of  the  subjective 
affection  we  speak  when  talking  of  sound,  or  of  heat 
and  light.  Still  the  stroke  upon  the  bell  or  a.  strained 
cord  modifies  the  medium  of  sound,  though  there  be 
no  ear  to  catch  the  modulations  and  make  them  audi- 
ble ;  and  so  the  ethereal  vibrations  modify  the  medium 
of  heat  and  light  where  there  are  no  organs  to  be 
affected  and  made  sensible.  It  is  this  efficiency  to 
modify  the  media  of  heat  and  light  which  we  here 
contemplate  quite  irrespective  of  the  affection  in  the 
organ;   even  that  to  which  we  apply  our  thermome- 


ETHEREAL    ATOMS   OCCASION   HEAT   AND    LIGHT.      199 

ters  and  photometei-8,  to  test  the  intensity  of  the 
energy  before  there  is  any  action  upon  our  senses. 
This  outer  causative  of  inner  sensation  is  what  we 
put  beneath  the  insight  of  the  reason  as  known  heat 
and  hght,  prior  to  all  sensible  warmth  and  color. 
The  diffused  ethereal  Atoms  constitute  the  Ether, 
and  this  in  rapid  vibration  is  the  heat  which  will 
become  sensible  to  touch,  and  the  light  which  will 
affect  the  visual  organ.  In  our  future  contemplation 
of  matter  as  compounded  in  bodies,  we  shall  find 
these  bodies  so  constituted  as  everywhere  to  permit 
the  difi'usion  ol  the  ether  through  them,  and  thus 
giving  occasion  for  the  vibratory  action  to  send  heat 
or  light  to  every  part.  The  slower  vibrations  wake 
the  less  quick  sense  of  touch,  and  the  quicker  and 
shorter  vibrations  affect  the  more  sensitive  organ  of 
vision,  and  the  same  body  may  be  impervious  to  one, 
although  readily  transmitting  the  other. 

Vibration  of  the  Ether  must  diff'er  from  vibration  of 
molecular  matter,  since  the  ethereal  atom  as  diremp- 
tive  must  compress  the  expulses,  when  stricken,  in 
the  line  of  impact,  and  augment  the  energies  of  those 
expulses  standing  perpendicularly  to  the  line  of  im- 
pact, and  thus  as  the  wave  progresses,  the  swelling 
must  be  transverse  the  course,  as  if  the  atoms  were 
so  many  bubbles  alternately  pressed  and  relaxed  in 
their  journey.  But  an  Antagonist  atom  can  have  no 
compression  and  dilatation  which  may  elongate  its 
diameter  transverse  its  line  of  movement,  and  hence 
the    rhythmical   oscillations   of    matter   must   be    an 


200'  KNOWLEDGE  OF   CREATION. 

advance  and  return  longitudinally  with  the  line  of 
travel.  The  distinction  in  vibratory  velocity  ex- 
pounds the  thermal  motion  to  the  touch,  and  the 
illuminating  movement  to  the  vision,  when  we  have 
the  temperature  of  a  metal  ball  heated  to  the  touch 
while  yet  dark  to  the  sight,  and  rising  in  intensity 
through  a  dusky  red,  and  a  bright  red,  to  the  highest 
white  heat.  Bodies  which  quickly  catch  and  check 
vibrations  must  as  readil}^  transmit  them,  and  thus 
as  they  absorb  they  equally  radiate,  and  where  they 
fix  and  latently  compress,  they  must  again  start  into 
vibration  when  freed  from  their  static  equilibrium ; 
just  as  the  coal-measures  give  out  on  combustion 
their  latent  intensity  of  vibratory  energy  compressed 
within  them.  And  so  all  the  phenomena  of  the  spec- 
trum, including  the  thermal,  colored,  and  chemical 
rays,  find  their  determinations  in  the  motion  of  the 
ethereal  vibrations  through  certain  media. 

We  shall  further  on  see  the  determined  diffusions 
and  relative  arrangements  of  material  and  ethereal 
atoms ;  we  here  need  only  to  anticipate,  that  they 
will  be  multiplied  and  mingled  in  varied  ways  and 
proportions.  As  everywhere  interfused  amid  ma- 
terial bodies  and  entering  into  their  construction, 
the  Ether,  as  all-pervasive,  will  give  to  its  vibrations 
the  energy  of  the  mass,  and  be  sufficient  to  stretch 
the  toughest  metals  and  break  the  strongest  bands. 
Continued  material  friction,  or  strong  compression, 
or  percussion  gives  proportional  ethereal  agitation, 
and    sensible    heat   or   light   is   determined    by   the 


ETH-REAL   ATOMS  OCCASION  HEAT   AND   LIGHT.      201 

motion.  Even  congealed  bodies  have  their  diffused 
ether,  which  may  be  put  in  motion  sufficient  to  work 
their  liquefaction.  The  more  rapid  vibrations  are 
luminous,  and  have  in  them  all  tlie  determinate  laws 
of  optical  science.  Reflection,  diffraction,  double- 
refraction,  polarization,  chromatic  aberration,  lumi- 
nous interference,  &c.,  may  all  be  comprehended  in 
.the  reason,  by  an  insight  into  the  forces  which 
underlie  and  condition  all  phenomena  of  vision,  as 
giving  rise  to  all  the  varied  affections  of  the  sentient 
organism  for  light  and  shade,  and  all  the  phenomena 
of  feeling  in  varied  sensations  of  heat,  and  its  absence, 
as  cold. 

Thus  far  we  have  attained  a  speculative  insight 
into  the  essential  being  of  force,  in  its  two  varieties 
of  antagonism  and  diremption ;  and  with  little  danger 
of  mistaking  have  found  the  laws  of  motion,  inertia, 
gravity,  and  magnetism  in  material  atoms,  and  the 
determinations  of  heat  and  light  in  ethereal  atoms. 
But  in  contemplating  in  advance  the  compositions 
and  conversions  of  these  distinguishable  forces  ac- 
cording to  their  mechanical  laws  of  interworking, 
modifications  and  combinations  come  in,  so  widely 
changing  inner  connections  and  outer  appearances, 
that  the  increasing  complications  soon  reach  beyond 
clear  discrimination.  The  simple  compositions  of 
forces,  empirically  beyond  explanation,  holding  the 
elemental  facts  of  physical  science,  may  rationally 
be  satisfactorily  expounded,  and  admitted  as  philo- 


202  KNOWLEDGE  OF  CREATION. 

sophicallj  known,  because  reasonably  interpreted. 
But  as  we  now  further  proceed,  under  this  Second 
Division,  to  more  complex  combinations,  we  choose 
the  speculation  should  rather  be  taken  as  tentative 
than  final;  deemed  probable,  but  not  in  full  insight 
to  be  said  infallible ;  awaiting  further  and  fuller  com- 
prehension, and  to  which  by  others  may  be  added 
the  determination  of  more  facts,  as  occasion  shall. 
be  taken. 

3.  Ethereal  Atoms  are  the  Media  of  Cohesion. 
—  The  impulses  of  an  antagonist  force  implicate  them- 
selves in  action  and  reaction  in  their  place  of  antago- 
nism, and  are  there  not  mere  impulse,  but  space-filling 
force.  All  the  impulses  of  the  atom  so  implicate 
themselves  at  their  common  central  place  of  antago- 
nism, and  thus  constitute  the  atom  a  solid  sphere  with 
iutenser  central  core  and  less  intense  superficial  shell, 
outside  of  which  the  impulses  are  coming  in  from 
every  side.  Should  an  additional  impulse  be  sent  in 
upon  the  shell  at  any  part  of  the  atom,  it  must  direct- 
ly antagonize  therewith  in  action  and  reaction,  and 
there,  in  it&  implication  with  the  old  shell,  begin  the 
formation  of  a  new  exterior  shell,  and  so  far  as  other 
added  impulses  should  contiguously  implicate  them- 
selves with  the  old,  a  new  outer  shell  would  thereby 
be  constituted,  and  the  diameter  of  the  atom  on  that 
side  be  so  much  elongated.  The  new  shell  would  co- 
here with  the  old,  and  become  an  incorporation  with 
the  solid  atom. 


ETHEREAL  ATOMS  MEANS  OF  COHESION.     203 

But  no  material  atom  may  so  work  its  impulses  into 
another,  since  they  each  work  in  upon  themselves 
respectively;  and  when  the  impulses  come  in  to  each 
from  beyond  the  other,  they  can  only  crowd  the  atoms 
together  as  gravity  without  incorporating  them  cohe- 
sively. An  ethereal  atom,  however,  may  stand  be- 
tween two  material  atoms,  and  its  expulses  will  each 
way  incorporate  in  their  implications,  and  the  two  ma- 
terial atoms  with  the  intervening  ethereal  atom  will 
be  made  firmly  coherent,  proportioned  to  the  energy 
of  the  implicating  expulses  and  the  intensity  of  the 
old  shells.  Any  number  of  such  cohering  atoms  may 
be  brought  and  held  together  by  their  mutual  attrac- 
tions, or  by  external  pressure ;  and  if  some  so  shield 
the  ethereal  by  the  surrounding  material  atoms  as  to 
exclude  all  heat  vibration,  there  will  be  a  molecule  in- 
dissoluble by  outer  violence.  These  atomic  implica- 
tions may  well  be  conceived  to  be  in  such  peculiar 
primitive  methods  as  to  constitute  the  sixty-six,  or 
whatever  number  there  may  be,  of  the  "  simple  sub- 
stances," so  called,  as  the  elementary  bases  of  all  co- 
hering bodies.  When  those  component  molecules 
firmly  cohere,  they  will  constitute  solid  bodies  ;  when 
they  admit  of  rolling  one  upon  another,  they  will  be  in 
^  fluid  state ;  and  when  more  widely  separated  by  inter- 
posed ethereal  atoms,  they  will  be  gaseous.  So  may 
be  formed  all  kinds  of  coherency  in  the  varieties  of 
density,  porosity,  hardness,  brittleness,  flexibility,  duc- 
tility, malleability,  and  capacity  for  welding.  In  mere 
cohesion,  the  body  is  made  up  of  the  component  ingre- 


204  KNOWLEDGE  OF   CREATION. 

dients,  and  is  what  the  molecules  are,  whether  of  a 
single  kind,  or  of  blended  substances. 

4.  Molecules,  reciprocally  neutralizing  their 
Forces  in  Cohesion,  determine  Chemical  Combina- 
tions. —  The  Atom  is  indivisible  and  essentially  un- 
changeable, but  one  differs  from  others  in  intensity, 
and  thus  in  gravity,  or  weight,  and  magnetic  energy. 
These  unite,  material  and  ethereal,  to  form  the  primi- 
tive molecules  ;  and  inasmuch  as  the  atoms  of  the  same 
intensity,  respectively,  must  enter  into  the  composi- 
tion of  the  same  kind  of  primitive  molecules,  so  all 
primitive  molecules,  that  are  the  same  in  substance, 
must  be  of  equal  weight ;  and  it  is  with  these  primi- 
tive molecules  that  chemistry  is  chiefly  conversant,  and 
when  secondary  molecules  are  formed  of  the  primi- 
tive and  brought  in  composition,  they,  too,  must  have 
those  of  like  substance  to  be  of  the  same  weight. 
Chemical  compounds  must  therefore  be  formed  upon 
the  general  principles  of  isometry,  determining  the 
same  measures  to  the  same  compounds  in  all  cases. 
If,  sometimes,  the  same  primitive  molecule  modifies 
its  own  intensity  by  exposure  to  light-vibrations,  or 
enters  in  composition  with  others  by  interposing  the 
ethereal  atoms  differently,  such  comparatively  rare 
exceptions  will  furnish  instances  of  what  has  been 
called  allotropismj  as  in  the  conversion  of  oxygen  to 
ozone,  or  the  altered  capacity  of  chlorine  to  combine 
with  hydrogen  in  darkness,  when  it  has  been  exposed 
a  while  to  strong  sunlight ;  and  also  of  changed  com- 


MOLECULAR   FORCES   GIVE   CHEMICAL    COMBINATION.    205 

position,  like  charcoal  and  graphite,  from  the  same 
primitive  substance,  carbon;  but  in  such  cases  the 
modification  makes,  for  the  time,  the  molecule  to  be 
of  a  different  nature.  The  change  in  ethereal  compo- 
sition determines  the  allotropism,  and  such  exceptions, 
so  determined,  need  not  be  here  further  regarded. 

The  composition  of  the  molecule  from  the  atoms 
determines  that  unlike  poles  must  attract  and  hold  the 
atoms  together  from  within  the  molecule,  and  thus  the 
opposite  polarities  must  stand  out  in  the  surface  of  the 
molecule  in  contrary  directions  respectively,  giving 
opposite  polarities  to  the  constituted  molecule.  Such 
molecules,  therefore,  as  attract  each  other  by  their 
concurrent  polarities,  will  determine  their  acuity,  and 
as  they  can  enter  into  composition  permanently  only 
so  far  as  they  balance  in  gravity  and  magnetism,  the 
molecules  in  aflSnity  must  also  stand  to  each  other  in 
composition  as  exact  equivalents j  and  the  proportions 
in  weight  with  which  any  two  bodies  come  in  compo- 
sition is  that  in  which  they  must  respectively  be  com- 
pounded with  every  other.  Thus,  inasmuch  as  the 
proportioned  weight  of  oxygen  is  8,  and  that  of  car- 
bon 6,  the  carbon  must  always  take  the  oxygen  in 
composition  in  the  proportion  of  8,  or  some  equal  mul- 
tiple of  8,  since  the  primitive  molecule  of  oxygen 
cannot  be  broken  into  any  fractions;  and  then  the 
carbon  at  each  varying  multiple  of  the  oxygen  must 
give  a  different  substance.  So  carbon  and  oxygen  in 
their  primary  proportions  give  carbonic  oxide;  and  car- 
bon with  another  proportion  of  oxygen,  as  first  multi- 


206  KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 

pie  or  double  in  composition,  is  carbonic  acid.  So 
always,  when  two  substances  combine  with  a  third, 
the  two  must  be  equivalent  with  the  third,  and  the 
like  compound  must  always  have  the  like  equivalent 
proportions.  As  1  of  hydrogen  is  equivalent  to  8 
oxygen,  and  35  chlorine  also  to  8  oxygen,  so  1  of  hy- 
drogen and  35  of  chlorine  must  be  equivalents.  The 
law  of  equivalents  is  determined  from  the  atomic 
forces,  both  in  the  primitive  molecules  and  all  subse- 
quent compounds. 

When  molecules  simply  cohere,  they  stand  un- 
changed in  their  sensible  properties,  for  they  are 
only  the  same  forces  joined  in  extension.  But  when 
they  come  together  in  chemical  affinity,  and  stand  to 
each  other  as  balancing  equivalents,  they  mutually 
neutralize  each  other  in  their  old  energies,  whether 
of  gravity  or  magnetism,  and  the  compound  must, 
therefore,  stand  forth  in  determined  new  energies, 
and  be  a  third  thing,  unlike  either  of  its  constituents. 
This  is  known  as  peculiarly  chemical  comhination,  in 
distinction  from  mere  cohesion.  Composition  may  be 
applied  generically  to  both,  but  the  composition  must 
neutralize  the  component  elements,  and  make  them  to 
be  wholly  lost  in  a  new  substance,  in  order  to  become 
chemical  combination.  When  the  elements  stand  to- 
gether as  joined  only  by  affinity,  but  not  so  as  com- 
pletely to  neutralize  their  separate  energies,  it  is 
known  as  a  state  of  indefinite  combination ;  and  only 
when  the  unity  is  to  the  complete  nulliQcation  of  old 
energies  is  it  known  as  a  state  of  definite  combination. 


MOLECULAR   FORCES  GIVE   CHEMICAL   COMBINATION.   207 

So  is  it  with  the  elements  of  nitrogen  and  oxygen ; 
they  stand  together  in  affinity  in  the  common  air  we 
breathe,  yet  do  they  not  completely  neutralize  their 
respective  energies,  and  thus  the  atmosphere  of  our 
earth  is  but  an  instance  of  indefinite  combination.  So 
the  proportions  of  hy.  1  and  ox.  8  may  stand  in  an  in- 
definite combination  by  their  mere  attraction ;  but  by 
the  violent  agitation  of  an  electric  shock  they  are 
completely  neutralized,  and  become  a  definite  combi- 
nation in  the  wholly  new  substance  of  water.  In 
given  cases  the  ingredients  may  separately  be  noxious 
and  the  compound  salutary,  or  the  reverse  order  may 
occur.  Combination  of  the  elements  can  occur  only 
as  they  are  in  dissolution,  though  in  frequent  cases 
the  affinity  may  have  sufficient  force  to  dissolve  their 
previous  combination. 

In  cases  of  definite  action  of  affinity,  the  combining 
elements  rush  in  contact  with  more  or  less  violence, 
and  the  concussion  must  induce  proportional  molecu- 
lar vibration,  agitating  the  ether,  and  thus  converting 
the  force  of  affinity  into  heat ;  and  hence  is  determined 
the  general  law  of  chemical  combination,  that  the 
definite  action  of  affinity  induces  heat.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  as  we  shall  soon  more  fully  notice,  the 
point  of  solution  requires  an  additional  interfusion  of 
ethereal  atoms  between  the  molecules,  that  they  may 
flow  over,  or  turn  one  upon  another,  and  which  ethe- 
real atoms  are  there  so  held  as  to  check  their  heat- 
vibration,  and  thus  render  so  much  heat-energy  to 
stand  neutralized  or  latent,  thereby  inducing  so  much 


208  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

negation  of  sensible  heat,  which  is  so  much  positive 
cold,  and  which  a  mere  indefinite  combination  of  the 
solved  molecules  does  not  release ;  and  thereby  is 
determined  the  general  law,  that  the  indefinite  ac- 
tion of  chemical  affinity  must  induce  cold.  The  heat 
in  definite  action  of  affinity  is  a  positive  generation, 
by  the  conversion  to  it  of  another  force ;  but  in 
indefinite  action,  the  suspended  heat  necessary  for 
fluid  solution  is  so  much  cold  still  held  unrelieved. 
So,  in  all  cases  of  chemical  combination,  the  forces 
necessarily  inducing  and  determining  it  are  already 
in  the  elements,  and  wherever  occasion  is  given  by 
their  solution  and  approach  within  the  sphere  of  the 
action  of  their  affinities,  the  complementary  elements 
as  chemical  equivalents  must  come  together,  neutral- 
izing their  old  action,  and  passing  into  a  new  form 
must  thereby  become  another  substance. 

5.  Thermal  Vibrations  determine  Solidity  or 
Fluidity.  —  The  etliereal  atoms,  as  media  of  cohe- 
sion in  solid  bodies,  are  susceptible  to  the  vibrations 
of  applied  heat,  and  in  the  consequent  agitation  the 
cohesive  texture  of  the  body  is  loosed  and  weakened. 
As  the  applied  heat-vibrations  intensify,  and  the  ther- 
mometer rises,  the  body  expands  proportionally  up  to 
a  certain  point ;  but  just  as  the  molecules  of  the  body 
are  coming  in  solution,  portions  of  the  vibrating  ethe- 
real atoms  are  taken  in  to  the  dissolving  molecules, 
and  held  there  in  static  equilibration,  thereby  giving 
occasion   for   these   material   molecules'  to   roll,   one 


THERMAL    VIBRATIONS   DETERMINE   FLUIDITY.        209 

molecule  upon  another,  in  incipient  fluidity.  This 
interfusion  of  the  ethereal  atoms  checks  and  neutral- 
izes so  much  sensible  heat-vibration,  and  the  point 
is  known  as  point  of  fusion,  and  the  suspended  heat- 
vibration  is  known  as  latent  heat  of  fusion. 

Different  substances,  of  course,  will  have  their 
points  of  fusion  at  different  degrees  of  temperature, 
but  for  the  same  substance  this  mid-point  between 
fluid  and  solid  must  ever  be  of  the  same  tempera- 
ture ;  and  to  maintain  the  substance  in  its  fluidity  at 
that  point,  so  much  heat-energy  is  necessarily  there 
suspended  in  the  in"!.erposed  ethereal  atoms.  Other 
molecular  cohesions  are  then  dissolved  in  the  body, 
and  ethereal  atoms  further  interposed  ;  and  these,  with 
all  the  former  dissolved  molecules,  are  free  to  flow'^one 
over  another,  and  thus  the  body  enters  into  a  fluid  state. 
The  augmenting  degrees  of  applied  heat  liquefy  in 
succession  the  cohering  molecules,  till  the  whole  body 
becomes  dissolved,  and  the  mass  is  made  fluid. 

When,  on  the  other  hand,  abstraction  of  heat  is 
made  persistently  from  the  fluid  state,  and  the  mole- 
cules approach  the  point  between  fusion  and  solidity, 
the  interposed  ethereal  atoms  are  there  found,  with 
their  suspended  heat-vibration,  held  as  latent  heat 
of  fusion ;  and  as  the  heat-energy  diminishes,  the 
molecular  attractions  avail  to  bring  the  material  ele- 
ments violently  together,  and  disengage  the  ethereal 
atoms,  to  return  to  their  vibratory  activity,  from  their 
latent  suspended  energy,  and  which  continues  till  the 
whole  latent  heat  of  fusion  is  released,  and  all  the 
14 


210  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

molecules  cohere  in  solidity.  The  latent  heat  may 
be  measured  as  released,  and  the  different  degrees 
for  different  substances  ascertained.  The  mid-point 
between  solidity  and  fusion  is  fixed  for  the  same  sub- 
stance ;  but  in  careful  quiet,  the  ethereal  atoms  may 
not  find  release  till  the  abstraction  of  heat  has  been 
carried  some  below  this  mid-point  of  temperature, 
when  the  slightest  shock  throws  them  out,  and  brings 
the  mass  at  once  to  the  normal  mid-point  of  tempera- 
ture. A  body  slow,  and  as  if  obstinate  in  its  melting 
and  cooling,  is  said  to  be  refractory;  but  few  only  resist 
all  degrees  of  applied  heat.  Carbon  is  found  insolu- 
ble practically,  but  its  crystallization  in  the  Diamond 
must  have  occurred  in  a  state  near  to  fusion  by  ap- 
plication of  intense  heat  from  some  quarter.  Oils 
loose  and  ^^  their  cohering  molecules  slowly,  and 
have  a  considerable  interval  for  softening  and  harden- 
ing between  their  solid  and  fluid  states,  while  Mercu- 
ry passes  almost  instantly  from  one  state  to  another. 
The  semi-fluid  state  of  iron  at  a  given  temperature 
makes  it  capable  of  welding^  by  a  forcible  interpene- 
tration  of  two  detached  pieces. 

Two  different  substances  which  decompose  each 
other  by  their  molecular  attractions  when  brought 
in  contact,  and  yet  do  not  recombine,  may  take  from 
themselves  the  heat  necessary  to  supply  the  latent 
heat  of  fusion  when  so  placed  that  it  cannot  other- 
wise be  attained ;  and  by  a  succession  of  such  con- 
tacts and  solutions  the  sensible  heat  may  be  with- 
drawn and    fixed   in  a  latent   state,  and  the  most 


MAGNETIC   POLARITIES  DETERMINE   CRYSTALLOGENY.   211 

intense  cold  ultimately  induced.  Such  are  known 
as  freezing  mixtures;  and  the  most  refractory  sub- 
stances become  in  this  way  solidified,  as  alcohol  has 
been  solidly  congealed  at  a  temperature  of  -150°  Fahr. 
The  liberation  of  the  latent  heat  of  fusion,  radiat- 
ing in  a  sensible  form,  is  an  exclusion  of  so  much 
diremptive  force  from  the  body  as  standing  in  its 
solid  state,  and  which  must  determine  that  matter 
in  ordinary  solidification  shall  be  of  less  volume  than 
when  in  fusion.  In  mere  cohesion,  with  no  crystal- 
lization, the  molecules  come  in  contact,  and  their  im- 
pulses become  mutually  implicated,  with  the  media 
of  fewer  ethereal  atoms  than  when  they  stand  as 
fluid,  and  the.  vibratory  action,  which  kept  them  so 
separate  that  they  readily  rolled  upon  each  other, 
has  also  so  diminished  in  their  solid  state,  that  they 
now  interlock  each  with  each ;  and  hence  they  must 
occupy  less  space  for  the  same  mass,  and  the  solid 
is  a  contraction  from  its  fluid  form.  Some  substances 
will  part  with  more  ethereal  atoms  in  solidifying 
than  others,  and  some  require  less  intense  vibration 
to  be  neutralized  in  the  latent  heat  of  fusion  than 
others ;  hence  different  substances  contract  different- 
ly in  solidifying,  but  the  same  substance  has  the  same 
contraction  at  all  times  of  cooling. 

6.  Heat  and  peculiar  Polarity  determine  Crys- 
TALLOGENY.  —  Dana's  System  of  Mineralogy  has  a 
Section  divided  into  Practical  and  Speculative  Crys- 
tallogeny ;  and  from  the  varieties  of  crystals  occasion 


212  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

is  taken,  speculatively,  to  show  what  form  and  polar 
action  the  molecule  must  originally  possess  to  induce 
the  geometrical  solids  which  the  real  crystals  in  na- 
ture present,  and  also  the  modified  conditions  which 
may  secure  blended  and  compound  crystals,  both 
paragenic  and  metagenic.  An  acuteness  and  clear- 
ness of  insight  are  herein  exhibited  that  may  scarce- 
ly find  a  parallel  in  the  whole  range  of  theoretic 
science.  From  the  observed  phenomena  it  deter- 
mines what  forces  the  molecules  must  intrinsically 
possess,  in  order  that  they  should  build  themselves 
up  in  such  solid  geometrical  figures.  But  with  the 
speculative  knowledge  of  force  in  its  own  essence 
as  already  attained,  both  antagonist  and  diremptive, 
and  also  the  essential  constitution  of  magnetic  po- 
larity, we  are  in  a  position  to  contemplate  the  facts 
of  crystallogeny  still  more  clearly,  and  know  their 
law  more  profoundly  and  comprehensively. 

Mere  cohesion  of  molecules  may  occur  under  all 
varieties  of  force  or  partially  constrained  action  of 
their  polarities,  and  thus  bodies  must  widely  differ 
in  internal  arrangement  of  their  component  mole- 
cules. Ordinary  solidification  will  present  the  ma- 
terial body  with  no  indices  of  inner  selection  and 
formal  arrangement,  for  the  molecules  have  come 
together  in  promiscuous  compression  from  violence 
or  their  own  gravitating  attraction  only.  But  if 
some  combination  of  atoms  secure  special  configura- 
tion of  molecules,  it  may  readily  be  determined  bow 
the  atomic  forces  may  be  so  combined,  in  the  mole- 


MAGNETIC  POLARITIES  DETERMINE  CRYSTALLOGENY.    213 

cnles  of  some  specific  substances  as  to  secure  their 
self-construction  of  regular  solids  in  various  forms 
of  crystallization,  when  the  substances  strike  to- 
gether from  a  state  of  solution  according  to  the 
polarities  of  their  molecules ;  and  such  polar  action 
must  give  the  law  to  the  crystallogeny  of  the 
specific  substances. 

We  mp-y  contemplate,  as  a  distinct  case,  four  materi- 
al atoms  encircling  an  ethereal  atom,  and  as  pairs  the 
lines  of  their  polar  diameters  intersecting  each  other 
at  right  angles  in  the  centre  of  the  ethereal  atom,  and 
we  shall  have  a  molecule  of  two  lateral  axes,  and 
their  opposite  terminations  of  dissimilar  polarities. 
The  solidity  may  be  completed  by  another  pair  of 
material  atoms  with  their  lines  of  polarity  intersects 
ing  these  lateral  axes  perpendicularly  in  their  com- 
mon point,  and  this  will  constitute  a  vertical  axis  with 
dissimilar  polarities  of  the  opposite  extremities.  Such 
completed  molecule  would  be  circumscribed  by  a 
sphere  having  three  equal  axes,  all  at  right  angles. 
Such  molecules  in  solution  would  so  pile  themselves 
together  by  their  polarities,  as  would  freely-moving 
magnetic  buck-shot,  equilibrating  both  their  gravitat- 
ing and  magnetic  energies.  The  determined  form  must 
be  a  cubic  geometrical  solid,  and  such  cubic  base  will 
be  the  nucleus  of  the  forming  crystal.  Should  the 
escaping  heat,  or  an  intenser  polarity,  favor  the  taking 
of  a  molecule  at  each  terminus  of  the  vertical  axis  at 
the  same  time,  and  thereby  neutralizing  and  so  far  sup- 
pressing the  working  of  the  attractions  in  the  termini 


214  KNOWLEDGE   OF  CREATION. 

of  the  lateral  axes,  the  result,  instead  of  a  cubic 
solid,  must  be  the  cutting  off  the  cubic  faces  to  the 
converging  faces  of  a  pyramid  on  each  side  of  the 
common  base,  and  building  up  the  crystal  to  a  regular 
octahedron  :  or  in  another  modification  of  balanced  po- 
larities, the  normal  cubic  faces  may  have  their  twelve 
edges  suppressed  and  cut  into  the  twelve  faces  of  a 
regular  dodecahedron.  The  controlling  polarities  will 
determine  the  modifications  of  the  accumulations  about 
the  termini  of  the  axes,  and  all  possible  peculiarities 
of  regular  growth,  from  two  lateral  axes  and  one 
vertical  axis  mutually  perpendicular,  will  come  within 
one  Division  of  scientific  crystallogeny  which  may 
be  known  as  the  Monometric  System. 

Or,  again,  there  may  be  contemplated  two  ethereal 
atoms  in  the  midst  of  surrounding  material  atoms, 
so  making  a  vertical  axis,  through  their  line,  longer 
than  the  two  lateral  axes  which  should  intersect,  per- 
pendicularly thereto,  in  a  common  point  at  the  contact 
of  the  two  mid  ethereal  atoms ;  and  such  completed 
molecule  would  be  circumscribed  by  an  ellipsoid, 
and  the  ellipse  which  any  axial  bisection  would 
make  on  revolving  upon  the  axis  would  describe 
an  ellipsoid  of  revolution,  and  having  a  vertical 
axis  longer  than  the  two  equal  lateral  axes,  and 
all  the  axes  at  right  angles  with  each  other.  Such 
molecules  freely  piling  themselves  together  by  their 
equal  polarities  at  the  axial  termini,  instead  of  con- 
stituting cubic  crystals,  as  before,  would  build  up- 
right  square  prisms;  and   by  modified  polarities,  as 


MAGNETIC   POLARITIES  DETERMINE   CRYSTALLOGENY.   215 

in  the  former  case,  the  right  square  prism  would 
be  changed  for  a  right  square  octahedron.  Another 
Division  of  scientific  crystallizing  will  here  include 
all  its  varieties  of  crystalline  form,  and  may  be  known 
as  the  Diametric  System. 

Other  modes  of  combined  ethereal  and  material 
atoms  constitute  the  molecules  of  peculiar  shape 
and  attraction  that  determine  all  other  Divisions  of 
crystallogenic  systems.  The  energies  are  in  the 
molecules  which  reciprocally  each  with  each,  and 
under  the  conditions  of  outlying  forces,  determine 
the  geometrical  solids  of  aill  forms  of  crystals.  Cir- 
cumstantial interferences  and  inequalities  induce 
the  abnormal  varieties  of  double  crystals,  truncated 
angles,  bevelled  edges,  and  secondary  faces;  but  all 
follow  as  the  determined  resultants  in  the  composition 
and  resolution  of  their  working  forces.  Many  crystals 
have  one  form  with  one  set  of  molecular  substances, 
and  other  forms  if  the  substances  are  blended ;  and 
in  some  cases  crystallization  cannot  come  into  any 
form  of  a  geometrical  solid  in  the  absence  of  specific 
conditional  ingredients.  Universal  law  is  manifest, 
though  complications  often  run  beyond  the  discrim- 
inating insight. 

This  reciprocity  and  neutralization  of  inhering 
energies  determine  the  varieties  of  the  joined  axes 
to  sides,  or  edges,  or  angles  ;  and  the  meeting  of  the 
molecules  where  there  is  least  intervention  of  mediat- 
ing ethereal  atoms  determines  the  lines  of  cleavage, 
while  the  peculiar  interfusions  of  the  ethereal  atoms 


216  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

in  the  interstices  between  the  molecules  determine 
all  the  optical  modifications  of"  transparency,  trans- 
lucency,  refraction,  diffraction,  and  chromatic  blend- 
ings  of  colors  in  different  crystals.  Solidification  of 
uncrystallizable  substances,  as  above  noticed,  part 
with  heat-vibration  and  some  of  their  ethereal  atoms, 
and  thus  contract  their  volume  ;  but  in  crystallization 
there  is  the  necessary  interposition  of  new  ethereal 
atoms  through  all  the  interstices  of  the  regularly 
arranged  molecules,  and  thus  the  volume  is  expanded. 
The  amount  of  ether  thus  used  differs  in  different 
substances,  and  thus  different  crystals  have  different 
degrees  of  expansion ;  but  in  all  cases  the  expansion 
from  the  introduction,  and  the  vibratory  energy  given 
from  the  pressure  of  the  universal  ether,  is  sufficient 
to  burst  the  hardest  rocks  and  toughest  metals,  if  they 
stand  in  resistance.  All  the  phenomena  of  crystalliza- 
tion stand  expounded  in  its  determining  forces. 

7.  Heat-vibration  determines  Vaporization.  — 
When  a  solid  becomes  fluid,  we  have  seen  that  the 
heat-vibrations  dissolve  the  fixed  cohesions  made 
by  the  solid  implications  of  the  impulses  and  expulses 
of  the  joint  forces,  and  that  ethereal  atoms  have 
additionally  been  interposed  between  the  material 
molecules  sufficient  to  hold  them  separate  in  their 
point  of  fusion,  and  where  has  been  suspended  the 
latent  heat  of  fusion  ;  but  now  we  note  from  this  state 
of  fusion  the  augmented  expansions  of  tho  heat-energy 
in  the  fluid  onward  to  the  state  of  vapor.     The  fluid 


THERMAL   YIBRATION   DETERMINES   VAPORIZATION.      217 

mass  rolls  easily  upon  its  own  molecules,  and  por- 
tions break  off  readily  even  by  tbeir  own  gravity ; 
but  the  whole  matter  flowing  or  sundering  in  parts 
is  still  held  at  the  point  of  fusion.  The  increasing 
heatrvibrations,  however,  induce  wider  molecular  ex- 
pansions silently  and  thoroughly.  When  by  heat- 
solution  the  fluid  has  been  carried  to  the  point  for 
vaporization,  the  dissolved  molecules  from  their  fluid- 
ity to  this  point  demand  the  interposition,  further, 
of  other  ethereal  atoms  to  fix  and  hold  them  in  their 
state  as  vapor.  In  such  interposition  of  heat-atoms, 
a  specific  degree  of  heat-vibration  is  held  suspended, 
and  which  is  retained  in  perpetuating  the  state  of 
vaporization ;  and  so  much  as  is  demanded  for  keep- 
ing the  molecules  apart  as  vapor  is  known  as  the 
latent  heat  of  vapor;  and  this  amount  difi'ers,  not 
only  in  difi'erent  substances  largely,  but  also  in  small 
degrees  in  the  same  substance. 

Why  the  latent  heat  of  vapor  is  not  a  fixed  quan- 
tity, in  the  same  substance,  is  determined  by  the 
inequality  of  the  spheres  of  vibration  surrounding 
the  molecules  to  be  vaporized,  at  the  difi'erent  tem- 
peratures of  the  fluid  when  the  vaporization  occurs. 
Water  evaporates  not  only  in  all  degrees  of  temper- 
ature as  water,  but  also  when  in  congelation  at  a 
temperature  below  zero.  Enough  energy  of  heat- 
vibration  is  made  to  surround  some  molecules,  even 
in  congelation,  to  send  them  apart  as  vapor.  But 
these  spheres  of  heat-vibration,  surrounding  the  evap- 
orating molecules,  must  be  of  less  or  greater  diameter 


218  KNOWLEDGE   OF  CREATION. 

according  to  the  temperature  in  the  fluid  outside  of 
them.  The  larger  sphere  will  be  within  the  higher 
temperature,  and  the  smaller  sphere  within  the  lower 
temperature,  and  these  unequal  spheres  will  exhaust 
unequal  degrees  of  heat-energy  in  equilibrating  with 
the  molecular  attractions,  which  is  the  amount  of  the 
latent  heat  of  vapor. 

If  the  heat-vibrations  are  persistently  maintained 
while  the  volume  of  vapor  is  being  compressed,  the 
intensity  of  the  vibrations  must  be  augmented  as  the 
volume  diminishes ;  and  so  it  must  be,  that  tempera- 
ture, volume,  and  density  of  vapor  shall  be  reciprocal 
equivalents.  If  portions  of  vapor  be  separated  from 
the  mass,  and  heat  be  added  or  subtracted,  the  pres- 
sure and  volume  must  vary  in  accordance.  Abstrac- 
tion of  heat  beyond  the  normal  degree  of  vaporization 
and  retention  of  latent  heat  of  fusion  must  return 
some  molecules  to  a  liquid  state,  and  the  abstraction 
suflSciently  continued  must  reduce  at  length  all  vapor 
to  a  fluid,  and  which  process  is  known  as  condensa- 
tion. The  volume  of  the  vapor  lessens  as  heat  is 
withdrawn,  but  when  the  vapor  is  all  condensed  the 
volume  of  water  is  very  small  compared  with  that 
of  the  preceding  vapor.  The  elastic  spring  and  ex- 
pansive energy  of  the  ethereal  vibrations  in  their 
augmenting  tension  soon  become  enormous,  raising  , 
immense  weights,  and  overcoming  the  cohesiveness 
of  any  known  material.  The  application  of  steam- 
power  might  be  indefinite  if  the  cohesiveness  of 
the    boiler-material   could   be   found   adequate ;    but 


THERMAL   VIBRATION  DETERMINES   COMBUSTION.       219 

earthquakes   and  volcanoes   attest  that  nothing  ter- 
restrial is  tough  enough  to  confine  it. 

8.  Heat-vibration  determines  Combustion.  —  Two 
Atoms,  one  material,  the  other  ethereal,  of  equal  en- 
ergy in  their  impulses  and  expulses,  and  put  together 
in  a  void,  would  reciprocally  equilibrate,  and  stand 
static  side  by  side.  Primitive  molecules  may  also 
stand  statically  balanced  in  their  equal  energies  one 
alongside  of  the  other.  Their  respective  polarities, 
also,  may  bring  and  hold  them  together  in  more  or 
less  fixed  connection,  and  their  implication  of  im- 
pulses and  expulses  hold  them  in  firm  cohesion. 
Heat-vibrations  may  then  be  induced  sufficient  to 
separate  these  conjoined  or  coherent  forces,  and  put 
their  static  energies  in  active  collision,  the  vio- 
lence of  which  will  augment  in  rapid  ratio,  as  the 
number  and  intensity  of  the  clashing  bodies  in  con- 
cussion shall  be  increased.  The  energies  of  gravity, 
magnetism,  and  chemical  cohesion  may  thus  be  con- 
verted into  heat-vibrations,  making  the  molecular 
derangements  destructively  violent.  When  such 
agitation  suffices  to  make  the  ether  luminous,  the 
phenomenon  is  known  as  combustion;  and  while  the 
burning  substance  retains  its  form  it  is  said  to  be  on 
Jirej  and  when  flying  apart  as  luminous  vapor  it  is 
said  to  be  in  flame,  or  in  a  blaze. 

Bodies  capable  of  being  so  luminously  dissolved 
and  diffused  are  known  as  combustibles;  and  such 
substances  as  in  their  strong  affinities  set  free  the 


220  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

combustible  molecules  are  termed  supporters  of  com- 
bustion. Some  bodies  so  strongly  cohere  as  to  resist 
all  ordinary  applications  of  heat-energy,  and  are  called 
non-comhustihley  while  perhaps  no  compound  bodies, 
above  the  primitive  molecules,  are  so  coherent,  or  in 
fixed  chemical  combination,  that  some  possible  heat- 
vibrations  may  not  sunder  them.  The  energies  gen- 
erating heat-vibrations  are  the  essence  of  the  mate- 
rial and  ethereal  forces  of  nature  itself;  and  when 
conditions  favor,  ordinary  non-combustibles  become 
inflammable,  and  the  elementary  air  and  ether  are  on 
fire,  and  the  face  of  the  world  is  changed  from  former 
to  new  combinations.  Solid  masses  part  in  the  con- 
flagration to  smoke,  cinders,  and  ashes  ;  and  then  the 
conflicting  forces  settle  again  in  quiet  balance  in 
those  new  forms  of  combination. 

In  our  most  advanced  modern  science  we  have  the 
very  interesting  description  of  the  process  of  com- 
bustion in  the  blaze  of  a  common  candle.  On  light- 
ing the  wick,  the  tallow  melts,  and  is  made  inflamma- 
ble according  to  the  following  philosophical  explana- 
tion. Carbon  and  hydrogen  are  constituent  elements 
in  the  tallow,  and  oxygen  is  an  element  in  the 
air  which  surrounds  the  candle-flame.  The  oxygen 
and  hydrogen  have  strong  reciprocal  affinities,  and 
their  molecules  come  together  in  clashes  of  great 
violence,  and  put  the  vapor  in  intense  molecular 
vibration,  and  this  "  mode  of  motion  "  is  the  candle- 
blaze.  The  molecules  of  carbon  and  oxygen,  also, 
have  strong  affinities,  and  strike  violently  together. 


THERMAL   VIBRATION   DETERMINES   COMBUSTION.       221 

constituting  in  their  conflict  tlie  intense  white  heat 
of  the  blaze  in  its  most  brilliant  portion.  This  col- 
lision is  going  on  in  the  outer  flame,  while  the  yet 
undissolved  carbon  and  hydrogen  constitute  the  dark 
core  within  the  blaze,  and  which  is  continually  being 
decomposed  and  so  perpetually  feeds  the  flame ;  the 
hydrogen  and  oxygen  combine  anew,  and  go  off  in 
watery  vapor,  and  other  portions  of  oxygen  combine 
with  the  carbon,  and  go  off  in  carbonic  acid,  and  so 
the  flame  is  lost  in  the  outer  while  steadily  renewed 
from  the  inner  matter. 

But  this  interest  ceases  so  soon  as  we  strive  to 
look  within  the  empty  terms,  and  find  ultimately  that 
they  have  no  meaning  beyond  the  mere  appearance. 
"  Afiinities  "  inducing  "  percussions  "  and  "  vibra- 
tions," and  thereby  making  heat  as  "  a  mode  of  mo- 
tion," is  certainly  saying  little  for  science,  and  noth- 
ing at  all  for  philosophy.  Not  only  is  heat  a  mode 
of  motion,  but  so  are  light  and  sound,  and  the  phenom- 
nal  in  every  sense-organ  is  a  mode  of  motion;  and 
we  know  nothing  beyond  the  naked  appearance  from 
all  the  set  words  we  use,  till  in  the  insight  of  reason 
we  truly  find  the  distinctive  forces  which  modify  the 
motions.  No  words  can  expound  what  the  mode  of 
motion  is,  till  we  know  what  force  is,  and  what  the 
distinctive  form  of  force  does,  and  in  the  insight  of 
the  essential  forces  we  can  clearly  determine  what 
must  be  the  phenomenal  sequences.  Carbon  and  the 
inflammable  gases  are  substantial  forces,  and  they 
dissolve  and  recombine  accordingly  as  their  distinc- 


222  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

tive  energies  in  their  impulses  and  expulses  interwork 
with  each  other.  The  carbon  in  the  tallow  candle 
decomposes  in  complete  combination ;  but  an  intense- 
ly heated  diamond,  plunged  in  a  volume  of  oxygen, 
becomes  luminous  in  stars  of  white  light,  with  no 
decomposition  in  its  stronger  carbonic  combination. 
The  forces  in  solar  vibration  fixed  in  fossil  coal-beds 
loose  and  strike  together  in  new  fires,  in  myriad 
furnaces.  The  forces  alone  determine  and  expound 
the  appearances. 

9.  Superficial  Magnetism,  made  free,  determines 
Electricity.  —  The  composition  of  molecules  into 
larger  bodies,  fixing  them  more  or  less  firmly  in 
cohesion,  will  in  proportion  to  the  cohesion  hinder 
their  magnetic  action.  It  can  be  anticipated  of  few 
bodies,  so  molecularly  constructed,  that  they  shall 
give  free  scope  to  the  unhindered  working  of  the 
polarity  of  their  component  atoms.  But  if  by  any 
interposing  forces,  such  as  that  occasioned  by  heat- 
vibrations,  there  may  be  the  loosing  or  dissolving 
of  the  cohesion,  in  the  case  of  the  superficial  mole- 
cules of  the  body,  so  as  to  give  to  them  the  com- 
paratively free  exercise  of  their  magnetic  energy, 
we  shall  then  have  them,  so  far,  acting  according  to 
their  inherent  mechanical  forces,  and  in  obedience  to 
the  eternal  laws  of  motion.  With  such  freedom  for 
the  magnetic  energy  in  the  surface  molecules  only  of 
the  body,  while  the  deeper  ones  remain  fixed  in  co- 
hesion, there  must  be  a  wide  modification  of  the  polar 


SURFACE   MAGNETISM  IS  ELECTRICITY.  223 

action,  even  so  far  as  at  first  to  appear  to  be  quite 
another  force  than  that  of  magnetism ;  and  with  so 
much  change  in  the  application  of  its  laws,  it  may 
readily  be  mistaken  as  an  open  field  for  wholly  an- 
other science  than  that  of  bringing  phenomena  within 
the  determinations  of  magnetic  action.  Such  bi-polar 
energy,  working  only  in  the  surface  molecules  of  ma- 
terial bodies  or  molecules  merely  in  contact,  is  elec- 
triciiy  ;  and  all  the  phenomena  presented  in  electrical 
agency  will  find  their  complete  comprehension  in 
such  restricted  application  of  magnetic  forces. 

Such  freed  surface-molecules  are  independent  mag- 
nets, according  to  the  polarities  which  their  compo- 
nent atoms  give  to  them,  as  turned  in  their  outer 
direction  opposite  to  their  inner  polar  unities.  They 
reciprocally  attract  and  repel,  and  mutually  arrange 
themselves  in  polar  directions,  proportioned  to  their 
freedom,  according  to  the  working  of  their  magnetic 
energy.  They  still,  so  far,  cohere  as  to  retain  each  its 
local  position,  but  are  so  far  free  as  to  permit  oscilla- 
tion on  their  centres  in  their  places.  The  magnetic 
now  known  as  the  Electric  impulse  flows  on  in  the 
extended  bodily  surface  of  molecules,  transmitting 
itself  from  one  to  another  from  the  first  movement, 
and  only  reaches  one  beyond  except  as  it  has  worked 
through  the  one  preceding.  Should  the  superficial 
molecules  in  a  body  be  not  so  freed  from  their  cohe- 
sion, they  can  neither  take  nor  impart  polar  impulses, 
and  can  therefore  be  excited  by  no  applied  energies 
to  exhibit  any  electrical  phenomena.     Bodies  capable 


224  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

of  such  excitement  may  be  known  as  electrics ;  and 
if  so  far  freed  in  their  molecules  as  to  oscillate  to 
and  fro  sufficient  to  take  and  transmit  the  polar 
energy,  they  will  be  known  as  conductors;  but  if 
the  molecules  are  only  so  far  freed  as  to  answer 
polar  influences  passing  over  its  surface  without 
sufficient  swing  to  transmit,  the  body,  though  an 
electric,  would  be  a  non-conductor.  A  conductor 
entirely  surrounded  by  non-conductors  will  be  known 
as  insulated. 

When  we  contemplate  a  large  body,  like  our  earth, 
in  its  polar  impulses,  we  note  the  flow  of  energy  from 
the  equator  each  way  to  the  poles,  through  all  the 
body,  and  so  each  point  in  each  semi-magnetic  axis 
is  a  polar  point  for  its  own  spherical  stratum ;  but 
when  we  contemplate  the  surface-flow  only,  it  finds 
its  static  rest  in  the  axial  extremities  as  its  poles. 
The  flow  towards  the  pole,  when  pressing  directly 
across  the  filled  helical  circuits,  will  be  direct  in 
meridional  lines,  and  any  concurring  polar  energy 
in  that  direction  will  find  an  unhindered  movement, 
until  it  and  the  polar  flow  in  the  body  itself  statically 
rest  in  the  polar  point.  But,  should  any  reverse 
polarity  running  occurrent  to  the  flow  supervene, 
there  must  at  once  be  an  encountered  resistance, 
and  the  occurrent  polarity  be  brought  to  static  rest 
in  the  speedily  balanced  antagonism.  There  must, 
thus,  be  two  kinds  of  electricity,  both  in  the  earth, 
and  in  all  freed  superficial  molecules  belonging  to 
smaller    bodies    connected    with    the    earth.      That 


SURFACE  MAGNETISM  IS  ELECTRICITY.  225 

which  in  the  earth  flows  directly  to  the  pole,  and 
in  any  body  near  the  earth  is  concurrent  with  the 
earth's  polarity,  may  be  known  as  positive  electricity, 
and  that  which  is  occurrent  to  the  polar  flow  of  the 
earth  may  be  known  as  negative  electricity.  In  all 
cases  near  our  earth,  the  distinction  must  be  in  the 
concurrent  or  occurrent  polarities. 

Electricity  is  thus  a  force,  and  not  a  fluid  put  in 
motion  by  some  assumed  agency.  A  positive  and 
negative  fluid  supposed  leaves  the  whole  in  its 
mystery,  for  we  must  at  length  inquire  with  equal  in- 
terest as  at  first,  What  moves  the  fluids  ?  and  why  do 
they  move  in  opposite  directions  ?  The  force  is  the 
essential  molecule,  and  the  flowing  energies  con- 
stituting it  determine  the  movement.  This  method 
of  contemplating  electricity  will  comprehend  all 
methods  of  exciting  it,  and  expound  all  the  phe- 
nomena attending  it. 

1.  Electricity  as  excited  by  friction.  Strong  mo- 
lecular percussion,  we  have  already  seen,  converts 
itself  into  light  and  heat  in  the  induced  ethereal 
vibrations.  All  collision  of  material  bodies  must  in 
this  way  generate  heat ;  and  even  so  small  an  amount 
as  that  generated  in  the  friction  of  pouring  quick- 
silver from  one  vessel  to  another  may  be  artificially 
measured.  The  friction  of  two  bodies  rubbed  against 
each  other,  and  thus  converted  into  heat-vibration,  will 
induce  an  agitation  of  the  ethereal  forces,  involved 
in  the  molecular  composition  of  the  body  on  its  sur- 
face, sufficient  to  free  these  superficial  molecules  for 
15 


226  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

the  play  of  their  polar  energies,  and  which  is  but  an 
excitement  of  electricity.  The  common  electrical 
machine  has  in  this  its  determination,  and  an  ac- 
companying explanation  of  all  the  phenomena  of  its 
action.  There  is  the  glass  plate  or  glass  cylinder 
with  its  prepared  and  applied  amalgam  rubber,  and 
the  movement  of  the  glass  beneath  the  rubber  sets 
free  the  molecules  in  both  surfaces.  The  surface- 
molecules  in  the  glass  body  are  only  so  freed  as  to 
become  electrically  excited,  but  not  so  as  to  transmit 
the  energy  from  one  to  another,  and  thus  glass  is 
found  to  be  a  non-conductor;  while  the  amalgam 
rubber  transmits  the  energy  over  its  surface,  and  is 
a  conductor.  The  direction  of  their  polar  energy  in 
the  glass  surface  is  found  to  be  occurrent  to  the 
earth's  polar  energy,  and  thus  the  electricity  of  the 
molecules  is  negative,  while  that  of  the  rubber  is 
positive.  Here,  as  glass,  the  electricity  excited  is 
ever  negative;  but  some  substances  change  their 
direction  of  polarity  according  to  the  more  or  less 
determined  form  which  they  or  their  rubber  may 
constitutionally  possess. 

As  a  non-conductor,  the  glass  has  an  artificially 
arranged  row  of  conducting  points  placed  within 
the  sphere  of  action  of  the  non-conducting  mole- 
cules, and  which,  as  points,  receive  and  transmit 
the  excited  energy  so  finely  and  evenly  as  not  to 
disturb  the  medium  through  which  it  passes.  The 
glass  or  the  rubber  has  a  conducting  connection  with 
the  earth,  as  the  great  static  regulator  of  all  smaller 


SURFACE  MAGNETISM  IS  ELECTRICITY.  227 

electric  bodies  in  its  connection ;  and  whichever  it 
may  be  that  is  thus  connected,  the  opposite  one  must 
stand  insulated.  If  the  glass  be  thus  connected  and 
the  rubber  insulated,  the  negative  electricity  will 
balance  itself  through  the  connection,  by  at  once 
standing  as  a  static  against  the  earth's  polarity  in 
the  flow  of  energy  towards  the  pole  ;  or  if  the  rubber 
be  so  connected  and  the  glass  insulated,  then  must 
the  positive  electricity  balance  itself  in  the  earth's 
magnetic  meridian,  which  it  meets,  as  that  stands 
static  in  the  polar  point.  The  kind  of  electricity 
thus  held  in  static  rest  must  crowd  its  opposite 
kind,  from  the  limiting  point  between  the  glass  and 
rubber,  out  over  the  connected  conducting  surface  in- 
definitely. Such  conducting  surface  is  then  said  to  be 
charged  with  electricity.  The  quantity  of  the  charge 
is  as  the  conducting  surface,  and  the  intensity  or  ten- 
dency to  find  its  balance  must  be  equal  over  a  spherical 
surface,  greatly  augmented  at  the  edges  of  a  plane  sur- 
face, and  most  of  all  where  the  surface  is  pointed. 

As  the  polar  energies  of  the  molecules  determine 
the  mode  of  making  the  electrical  machine,  so  also 
they  expound  all  the  experiments  in  exciting  elec- 
tricity by  the  machine.  Among  the  more  prominent 
and  controlling  cases  may  be  adduced  the  following : 
An  insulated  conductor,  in  an  unexcited  and  thus  a 
natural  state,  may  be  placed  near  to  the  charged 
conductor  so  that  the  impulses  of  their  molecules 
shall  reciprocally  interact,  when,  at  once,  the  mole- 
cules  in  the   surface   of   the   uncharged    conductor 


228  KNOWLEDGE  OF  CREATION. 

must  be  excited,  and  moved  in  position  according 
to  the  polar  energies  imparted;  and  thus  this  con- 
ductor becomes  itself  charged  by  induction  from 
the  former.  This  induced  charge,  having  no  way 
of  escape  on  account  of  its  insulation,  must  have 
the  kinds  of  electricity  in  the  action  of  the  poles  of 
the  molecules  both  concurrent  and  occurrent,  and 
which  must  balance  themselves  in  their  own  super- 
ficial area,  thus  making  a  neutral  mid-line  across  the 
conductor,  and  the  dissimilar  kind  to  the  exciting 
electricity  attracted  to  the  hither,  and  the  similar 
kind  expelled  to  the  further  side  of  the  neutral  line. 
So  long  as  excited  and  insulated,  these  induced  elec- 
tricities must  maintain  their  places,  but  must  fall 
back  to  their  natural  state  on  removing  the  indu- 
cing conductor;  or,  if  the  induced  conductor  be  con- 
nected with  the  earth,  then  must  the  invading  energy 
of  the  inducing  kind  of  electricity  balance  itself  in 
the  earth,  and  leave  to  the  induced  charge  only  the 
dissimilar  kind  in  action. 

And  still  further ;  such  induced  charge  of  unlike 
electricity  to  that  which  induced  it  must  react  upon 
the  inducing  conductor,  so  far  neutralizing  that 
which  in  it  is  like  itself,  and  repelling  this  to  the 
remotest  side  of  the  first  inducing  conductor,  thereby 
bringing  the  kind  dissimilar  to  itself  to  the  nearest 
side,  and  augmenting  the  first  inducing  energy,  and  in- 
creasing the  charge  in  the  second  induced  conductor. 

These  alternately  induced  and  augmenting  charges 
in  the  two  conductors  must  efiect  what  is  known  as 


SURFACE  MAGNETISM  IS   ELLCTEICITY.  229 

condensation  of  electricity,  and  which  remains  stead- 
fast on  the  last  conductor  as  in  a  latent  state,  and  is 
sometimes  called  dissimilar  electricity.  This  i'alls  im- 
mediately to  a  natural  state  on  the  removal  or  a  dis- 
charge of  the  first  conductor.  The  Ley  den  Jar,  or 
the  multiplication  of  Jars  to  a  Battery,  is  thus  effect- 
ed, and  heavy  charges  of  electricity  are  accumulated. 
A  connection  with  the  earth  discharges  the  battery, 
and  when,  through  points  in  the  connecting  conduct- 
or, as  before  shown,  it  must  go  off  equably  and  still, 
balancing  in  the  earth  with  no  molecular  or  ethereal 
vibration.  But  if  the  termination  of  the  approaching 
conductor  be  a  ball,  or  expanded  surface,  the  discharge 
meets  and  makes  a  violent  percussion  with  the  inter- 
vening forces,  and  notifies  itself  in  the  commotion. 
This  is  by  sound  to  the  ear  in  the  agitation  of  the  at- 
mosphere, and  by  light  to  the  eye  in  the  vibration  of 
the  surrounding  ether.  Both  the  sound  and  the  light 
or  heat  are  cases  of  conversion  from  one  form  of 
force  to  another.  Thus  a  cloud  of  many  square  miles' 
surface  may  so  be  connected  at  some  point  with  the 
earth  by  its  mist  or  faUing  rain  as  to  balance  one  kind 
of  its  electricity  with  the  electrical  currents  of  the 
earth,  and  thereby  give  occasion  for  its  friction  in  the 
winds  to  charge  the  whole  with  the  dissimilar  kind, 
which  may  a  while  stand  quiet  in  its  insulation;  but 
it  can  have  no  safe  rest  till  balanced  in  the  earth  in 
both  electricities.  If  taken  off  by  points,  the  air 
knows  no  commotion  ;  if  taken  off'  by  explosive  shocks, 
the  molecular  vibration  becomes  converted  into  light- 


230  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

ning  through  the  eye,  and  into  thunder  on  the  ear. 
And  so  may  be  determined  all  the  phenomena  of  elec- 
tricity excited  by  friction  ;  with  like  and  unlike  kinds  ; 
insulated  and  uninsulated  conductors;  charged  and 
discharged ;  all  is  in  the  constitutional  energy  of  the 
polar  activity  of  freed  superficial  molecules  that  com- 
pose material  bodies.  Some  substances  are  easily 
excited;  and  some  with  great  difficulty,  or  not  at  all ; 
but  the  force  to  give  all  the  movements  of  electrical 
agency  is  constitutionally  in  the  very  construction  of 
material  atoms,  and  retained  in  the  molecules  of  all 
material  bodies. 

When  an  electric  battery  is  made  to  work  its  cur- 
rent in  an  exhausted  glass  receiver,  a  luminous  stream 
is  sent  from  either  the  positive  or  the  negative  end 
of  the  pointed  conductor ;  the  positive  electricity  in 
lines  slightly  diverging  from  the  point  into  a  brush  of 
light,  while  from  the  negative  point  the  stream  flatly 
radiates  in  a  star-shaped  spark  about  it.  So  it  should 
have  been  anticipated.  The  molecules  of  atmospheric 
matter  are  mainly  abstracted,  but  the  ethereal  atoms 
at  least  are  there  filling  the  air-exhausted  space,  and 
though  they  only  oscillate  on  their  centres  as  the 
polar  action  goes  from  one  to  the  next,  the  converted 
fire-flash  from  the  polarizing  stroke  is  perpetuated 
from  atom  to  atom,  and  the  light  is  truly  in  motion. 
The  positive  stream  is  continuous,  and  when  in  it  is 
also  concurrent  with  the  earth's  magnetic  meridian 
towards  the  pole,  and  can  find  little  impediment  from 
anything;  but  the  negative  current  meets  the  earth's 


SURFACE  MAGNETISM  IS  ELECTRICITY.  231 

magnetic  current  flatly  in  the  face,  and  must  scatter 
itself  in  star-shaped  atomic  polarities. 

So,  again,  with  electric  perforations  of  pasteboard, 
or  other  substance  favorable  for  the  trial;  the  hole 
made  is  not  as  if  pierced  from  one  side  with  a  bodkin 
—  indented  at  the  entrance,  and  burred  at  the  exit. 
The  molecules  have  been  made  to  vibrate  and  sunder 
their  cohesion  from  within  outward,  and  so  have  burred 
both  sides. 

2.  Thermal  Electricity,  —  There  are  substances 
found,  that  when  connected  according  to  a  certain 
arrangement,  and  heated  in  a  certain  way,  give  out 
their  different  currents  of  electrical  energy.  Alter- 
nate bars  of  bismuth  and  antimony,  soldered  together 
at  their  ends  in  divergent  and  convergent  directions, 
respectively  and  successively,  making  a  row  standing 
in  more  or  less  acute  angles  at  both  ends  of  the  bars, 
and  the  beginning  and  terminal  ends,  which  are  sin- 
gle, connected  by  a  conductor,  will  constitute  the 
arrangement  for  a  thermal  electric  battery.  When 
the  bars  are  heated  at  one  end  through  the  range,  an 
electric  current  passes  from  bismuth  to  antimony; 
and  if  cooled  at  this  end  below  the  temperature  of 
the  opposite,  or  the  opposite  be  more  heated  than 
this,  then  the  flow  reverses  itself,  and  proceeds  from 
antimony  to  bismuth.  The  bars  are  comparatively 
heated  and  cooled  in  their  opposite  ends,  and  the  pos- 
itive flow  is  in  the  heated  end,  whichever  it  may  be, 
and   from   bismuth   to   antimony  bars   respectively ; 


232  KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 

but  when  both  ends  are  of  like  temperature,  the  elec- 
tric energy  is  quiescent. 

The  polar  energies  in  the  molecules  of  the  bars  de- 
termine the  whole  process  and  results,  as  before  in 
electricity,  by  friction;  varying  only  as  the  changed 
conditions  require.  At  the  heated  ends  through  one 
side  of  the  range,  the  molecules  in  all  the  bars  are 
the  most  fully  liberated,  and  in  each  bar  the  molecules 
are  less  and  less  free  as  they  approach  the  cooled  end 
in  the  other  side  of  the  range,  and  thus  the  electric 
energy  will  be  greatest  in  the  heated,  and  least  in  the 
cooled  ends.  The  movement  must  therefore  be  from 
the  heated  end  of  the  bar  to  the  cooled,  and  thence 
through  the  cooled  end  of  the  alternate  bar  to  the 
heated  end  of  the  next,  making  the  positive  flow  in 
that  direction,  and  the  negative  action  in  the  opposite 
direction.  When  the  ends  in  the  other  side  of  the 
range  are  heated,  conditions  are  reversed,  and  the 
positive  current  has  a  reversed  direction,  making  also 
the  negative  energy  the  opposite  in  direction  from  its 
former  course.  The  whole  passes,  in  contrary  direc- 
tions of  positive  and  negative  each  to  each,  in  a  closed 
circuit.  The  particulars  of  the  polarities  are  like  the 
voltaic  currents,  and  can  best  be  noted  in  that  strong- 
er flow. 

3.  Electricity  chemically  excited.  —  Some  substances 
of  different  force  of  affinities  in  their  molecules, 
and  especially  such  as  are  in  different  degrees  oxi- 
dizable,  must  chemically  affect  each  other  in  coming 
in  contact,  and  may  thus  free  their  superficial  mole- 


SURFACE   MAGNETISM   IS   ELECTRICITY.  233 

cules  SO  as  to  admit  of  their  polar  arrangement,  and 
thereby  excite  electrical  action.  The  least  oxidizable, 
and  thus  of  greater  force  of  aflSnity  and  stronger 
combination  in  itself,  will  ordinarily  give  the  positive 
direction  towards  and  through  the  more  oxidizable 
body,  and  the  oxidizable  bodies  will  be  specially 
minerals.  The  mere  contact  can  induce  but  slight 
excitement,  while  constant  contact,  within  a  chemically 
active  solvent,  may  much  more  eflectually  free  the 
surface  molecules,  and  greatly  augment  the  electrical 
action.  Acids,  alkalis,  and  saline  solutions  may  so  act 
upon  different  metals  as  to  excite  their  surface  mole- 
cules in  strong  polar  attractions  and  repulsions  recip- 
rocally. Electricity,  so  excited,  has  circumstantial 
peculiarities,  and  is  known  as  Galvanism,  from  the 
name  of  its  first  observer ;  or  more  recently  as 
Voltaic  electricity,  from  a  later  more  thorough  experi- 
mentalist. 

This  voltaic  electricity  is  still  the  same  essential 
polar  energy  as  in  the  cases  already  contemplated; 
and  the  artificial  arrangements  for  exciting  it,  and  all 
the  phenomena  of  its  working,  are  determined  and 
expounded  by  the  necessary  laws  of  mechanical  force 
and  motion,  as  contemplated  in  the  free  magnetic  ac- 
tion of  the  molecules  that  lie  in  the  surface  of  mate- 
rial bodies.  We  may  carefully  apply  these  laws,  as 
we  pass,  to  the  arrangements  and  results,  in  their  facts, 
under  the  insight  of  the  reason,  and  we  cannot  fail  to 
see  their  strictly  determined  conformity. 

When  two  metals,  as  zinc  and  copper,  are  conven- 


234  KNOWLEDGE  OF   CREATION. 

iently  shaped  and  joined  at  their  ends,  they  mutually 
act  on  each  other  in  freeing  their  surface  molecules 
and  awakening  their  polar  impulses.  As  the  more 
coherent  and  less  oxidizable,  the  copper  sends  the 
positive  current  through  the  zinc,  while  the  negative 
current  goes  from  the  zinc  through  the  copper. 
When  these  are  immersed  in  a  chemical  solvent, 
the  molecules  are  more  thoroughly  and  extensive- 
ly loosened,  and  the  electro-motive  energy  is  greatly 
augmented.  A  series  of  such  metal  plates  being  ar- 
ranged and  immersed,  their  quantity  of  voltaic  elec- 
tricity will  be  as  the  aggregate  surfaces  of  all  the 
plates;  and  the  intensity  of  the  current  will  be  as 
the  number  of  pairs  of  metal  plates,  each  one  super- 
inducing its  own  current  upon  that  of  all  the  former. 
The  poles  of  the  pile  of  plates  will  be  as  the  outgo- 
ing currents,  the  positive  at  the  end  from  which  the 
positive  flow  of  energy  proceeds,  and  the  negative 
at  the  end  from  which  flows  the  negative  current. 
Attached  conductors  at  these  poles  receive  and  per- 
petuate the  flow  according  to  their  respective  at- 
tachments. 

These  conductors  have  their  superficial  molecules 
electrically  excited,  and  thus  the  poles  are  carried 
to  the  extremities  of  these  conductors  respectively, 
and  when  insulated  by  the  atmosphere,  though  put 
in  polar  directions  there  is  no  perpetuated  flow,  but 
if  one  pole  of  the  conductors  be  connected  with  the 
earth,  its  electrical  action  will  be  neutralized  by  the 
earth's   dissimilar   polarity,  and  the  electric   energy 


SURFACE  MAGNETISM  IS  ELECTRICITY.  235 

of  the  voltaic  battery  must  then  be  wholly  of  the 
unlike  kind  of  electricity.  When  both  poles  are 
connected  with  the  earth,  they  must  both  be  bal- 
anced ;  and  if  all  are  insulated,  and  the  poles  be  con- 
nected not  with  the  earth,  but  in  contact  with  each 
other,  there  will  then  be  a  closed  circuit,  and  the 
currents  will  pass,  each  in  its  own  direction,  as  con- 
stant as  the  continued  arrangement.  When  the  com- 
munication is  with  the  earth,  each  separate  stroke 
from  the  pile  and  its  flow  to  the  earth  is  therein 
balanced,  and  thus  every  electric  shock  is  truly  a 
new  one ;  but  when  the  insulated  poles  are  connected 
in  the  closed  circuit,  there  is  no  balance  of  either 
pole,  and  the  old  current  fills  and  repeats  continual- 
ly. When  the  current,  as  in  the  former  case,  flows 
perpetually  new  to  its  balance  in  the  earth,  it  must 
act  upon  an  applied  electrometer ;  but  in  the  other 
case  of  a  closed  circuit  and  the  same  old  current, 
the  electrometer  can  have  no  strokes  from  the  cur- 
rent. 

This  constitution  of  the  molecular  polarity  deter- 
mines all  the  phenomena  of  electro-magnetism.  A  pole 
of  a  magnet  so  placed  that  its  action  shall  recipro- 
cate with  a  voltaic  current,  all  the  movements  must 
at  once  be  determined  by  the  magnetic  attractions 
and  repulsions  upon  the  surface  molecules,  in  which 
is  the  electric  flow.  The  magnetic  impulse  and  the 
electric  current  are  but  one  polar  energy.  As  the 
north  magnetic  pole  is  directed  to  an  ascending  or 
descending  current,  or  as  a  south  magnetic  pole  is 


236  KNOWLEDGE   OP  CREATION. 

thus  directed,  so  the  movements  must  be  in  each  of 
an  opposite-handed  character.  A  fixed  current  may 
have  movable  magnetic  poles,  and  a  fixed  pole  mova- 
ble voltaic  currents ;  and  the  courses  in  each  must 
be  the  resultants  of  the  compound  attractions  and 
repulsions. 

And  so  we  have  also  the  like  clear  determination 
for  all  factitious  magnets.  As  soft-iron  has  no  co- 
ercive-force, it  comes  under,  and  falls  from,  the  polar 
energy,  as  applied  and  removed,  instantly.  When, 
then,  a  conveniently  shaped  bar  of  soft-iron  is  sur- 
rounded by  opposite-handed  helical  conductors,  the 
voltaic  currents  passing  in  the  opposite-handed  hel- 
ices instantly  put  the  molecules  of  the  soft-iron  bar 
into  a  complete  magnet,  with  its  neutral  equator,  its 
opposite-handed  hemispheres,  and  its  opposite  polar- 
ities. Such  factitious  or  artificial  magnet,  being  con- 
stituted and  used  in  connection  with  the  telegraph 
wire  of  no  coercive-force,  all  the  wonderful  facilities 
of  telegraphic  communication,  will  be  at  once  deter- 
mined. The  insulated  soft-wire  in  the  atmosphere, 
or  by  its  coating  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  has  its 
surface  molecules  put  in  vibration  at  every  touch  of 
the  magnet,  and  fall  in  quiescence  at  every  withdraw- 
ment.  The  connection  of  one  pole  with  the  earth, 
and  balanced,  gives  to  the  other  the  working  im- 
pulse, and  the  capacity  to  spell  any  message. 


REVOLVING  FORCES  FASHION  THE  UNIVERSE.       237 


THIRD  DIVISION. 

REVOLVING  FORCE. 

In  the  constitution  of  the  Atom,  we  noted  a  revolv- 
ing agency,  which  turned  each  component  force  as 
created  upon  its  limit  of  antagonism,  and  thus  made 
all  to  turn  spirally,  and  in  helical  circuits  opposite- 
handed  in  opposite  hemispheres,  till  in  the  comple- 
tion of  the  atom  it  had  become  a  sphere,  locked 
within  itself  and  excluding  further  revolution  from 
its  own  inner  counteraction.  Thus  far,  we  have 
found  such  a  constituted  atom  subserving  its  ends 
in  material  nature  by  its  magnetic  and  electric 
energy,  and  reveahng  the  design  of  the  Creator, 
in  so  constructing  the  atom,  by  the  results  of  its 
own  agency.  But  now  we  come  to  a  much  more 
extended  use  for  such  construction,  in  the  very  re- 
volving agency  itself,  which  not  only  secures  to  the 
completed  atom  its  bi-polar  action,  but  ministers  di- 
rectly to  the  fashioning  of  the  Universe,  and  the  de- 
termining of  a  Common  Space  and  Time  as  Absolute 
for  all  worlds. 

1.  A  Revolving  Force  determines  the  Universe 
AND  ITS  Absolute    Space  and    Time.  —  That   there 


238  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

may  be  a  common  space,  in  the  experience  of  many, 
demands  that  a  fixed  position  be  taken  and  main- 
tained by  a  perpetual  filling  it  with  substantial  force ; 
for  if  the  one  fixed  position  be  once  lost,  the  possi- 
bility of  determining  the  one  space  must  thereby 
be  lost.  And  so  also,  that  there  may  be  a  common 
time  for  the  experience  of  many,  there  must  be  con- 
tinuous movement  from  the  one  fixed  position;  for 
should  the  motion  stop  or  be  cut  off  from  connection 
with  the  fixed  position,  the  possibility  of  putting  all 
their  times  into  one  time  would  be  gone.  But  rec- 
tilineal movement  from  a  fixed  position  cannot  meas- 
ure itself;  the  movement  must  return  into  itself  in 
cycles,  and  thereby  have  its  own  measure,  and  be 
also  an  occasion  for  comparatively  determining  all 
periods.  While,  thus,  revolving  movement  will  give 
determined  common  space  and  time,  it  will  also  be 
found  to  determine  the  forms  and  positions  of  ma- 
terial worlds,  and  the  construction  of  the  entire 
universe. 

The  threefold  agency  in  creation,  as  before  found 
necessary  to  make  either  the  Creator  or  his  creating 
work  intelligible,  will  here  be  noted  as  indispensable 
for  comprehending  the  facts  of  nature,  as  far  as  all 
experience  has  yet  gained  them.  The  conscious  will 
of  the  First  Person  must  hold  within  itself  the  uni- 
versal Idea;  the  conscious  will  of  the  Second  Person 
must  overtly  express,  and  hold  in  stable  reality,  the 
substantial  Forces  elemental  for  this  universal  Idea ; 
and  the  conscious  will  of  the  Third  Person  must  turn 


REVOLVING  FORCES  FASHION  THE  UNIVERSE.       239 

all  the  elemental  forces  together,  and  hold  them  in 
Unity.  The  constituent  Forces  in  the  two  varieties 
of  antagonist  and  diremptive  have  all  that  is  ele- 
mental in  material  and  ethereal  substances,  as  they 
have  already  been  contemplated ;  and  we  now  seek 
to  know  how  they  may  be  shaped  and  bound  in  the 
complete  unity  of  the  original  Idea.  This  is  to  be 
accomplished  in  the  contemplation  of  a  distinctive 
revolving  Force  overtly  acting  upon  the  material 
and  ethereal  forces,  and  so,  other  than  in  any  think- 
ing-process, an  actual  willing  energy  is  to  deter- 
mine the  universe  as  palpable  thing  transcending 
all  stated  thought ;  centrally  fixed  in  itself,  and  turn- 
ing in  its  place,  in  the  one  common  space  and  time 
for  all  rational  Intelligences. 

Were  we  to  begin  with  the  elementary  material 
and  ethereal  mass,  and  attempt  to  account  by  the 
logical  Judgment  for  the  separation  into  parts,  and 
the  sorting  and  putting  them  together  in  a  universal 
whole,  one  method  we  might  take,  as  some  do,  in  ex- 
planation of  the  universal  forming  process  would  be, 
to  assume  the  being  of  a  personal  Creator  who  had 
in  his  own  way  overtly  fixed  the  hard  material,  and 
now  fashions  it  in  many  worlds  at  his  pleasure ;  and 
while  it  is  supposed  that  he  knows  all  thoroughly  and 
comprehensively,  it  must  be  taken  that  we  can  know 
nothing  about  the  manner  how,  and  are  forced  to  con- 
tent ourselves  with  the  study  of  the  mere  appearances. 
If,  however,  we  should  see  it  to  be  illogical  to  assume 
the  being  of  a  Creator  and  fashioner  of  the  universe, 


240  KNOWLEDGE   OP   CREATION. 

and  will  begin  as  others  have  in  facts,  and  not  assump- 
tion, we  may  carefully  study  the  appearances  as 
they  come  in  experience,  noting  how  they  stand 
together  or  succeed  each  other,  and  how  the  many 
later  have  come  from  the  fewer  which  were  more 
early,  and  may  talk  of  this  as  "  development "  and 
"  evolution ; "  and  then  may  imagine  that  if  we  could 
go  far  enough  back,  we  might  fall  upon  one  simple 
being  needing  nothing  further  back ;  and  could  there 
say,  inasmuch  as  "  genetic  production,"  after  the  law 
of  "  like  from  like,"  with  "  occasional  deviations,"  has 
been  given  in  experience,  this  tirst  simple  being  in  the 
millions  of  ages  has  begotten  all  "  varieties  of  species," 
and  preserved  all  '*  consecutive  gradations  "  by  "  nat- 
ural selection."  But  then,  this  primitive  simple  is  the 
"  absolutely  unknowable,"  and  indeterminate  whether 
person  or  thing,  and  so  our  science  and  our  religion 
vanish  in  blank  "  nescience."  The  upshot  of  all  phi- 
losophy of  experience  is, —  God  knows,  but  we  can- 
not know ;  or,  —  we  attain  an  absolutely  simple,  which 
we  cannot  say  if  it  be  God  or  not. 

But  the  case  is  far  otherwise,  when  we  can  give 
the  carefully  collected  facts  of  experience  over  to 
the  insight  of  an  acknowledged  faculty  which  reads 
the  certain  meaning  in  empirical  appearances,  and 
knows  this  to  be  force  in  nature,  and  free  personoliiy 
as  Author  of  force  above  nature.  We  thus  intelli- 
gently enter  nature  in  her  very  essence,  and  in  "  the 
things  that  are  made  "  we  "  clearly  see  the  power  and 
Godhead  "  of  their  Maker.     We  can  then  legitimately 


REVOLVING  FORCES  FASHION  THE  UNIVERSE.       241 

begin  with  the  making,  and  follow  the  process  of 
fixing  the  realities  which  determine  all  our  observed 
appearances.  We  know  God  as  independent  of  time, 
and  that  his  knowledge  of  the  universe  is  timeless, 
and  thus,  to  him,  the  making  of  the  atoms,  and  mould- 
ing them  in  worlds,  and  turning  the  worlds  on  one 
centre,  were  as  if  instantaneously  accomplished  ;  while 
to  bring  the  work  into  our  finite  comprehension,  we 
must  follow  through  the  process,  item  by  item,  and 
see  the  work  go  on  atom  by  atom,  that  at  last  we  may 
attain  to  the  consummation,  when  the  working  will 
of  the  Spirit,  by  a  revolving  force,  has  taken  the 
atoms  in  their  formless  state  and  void  of  all  inter- 
consistency,  and  turned  tbem  into  solid  worlds,  and 
lit  them  up  in  the  brightness  by  which  he  hath  "  gar- 
nished the  heavens." 

With  the  insight  of  reason,  then,  we  now  go  back  to 
the  commencing  work  of  creation, and  there  contemplate 
the  interposition  and  results  of  this  revolving  Force 
as  the  direct  product  of  the  Spirit's  agency.  When 
the  Logos,  as  realizing  Will,  made  overtly  stable  the 
first  substantial  Force,  the  Spirit  as  fashioning  Will, 
revolved  it  on  its  antagonizing  point  that  the  next 
created  Force  should  occupy  the  exact  place  which 
the  first  had  ;  and  creating  and  forming  agencies  so 
continued  their  work,  till  the  first  completed  atom 
filled  its  place,  and  in  its  own  fulness  could  take  in 
no  further  forces.  And  now,  that  the  creating  and 
revolving  processes  may  go  on,  the  Spirit  must  move 
not  merely  the  successive  forces,  but  the  created  atom 
16 


242  KNOWLEDGE  OF   CREATION. 

from  its  place  ;  and  doing  this  to  tbe  extent  of  half 
the  diameter  of  the  solid  atom,  the  precise  old  posi- 
tion for  a  new  created  force  is  thereby  vacated, 
wherein  a  new  atom  may  begin,  and  here  a  second 
is  made  and  fashioned  as  was  the  first  atom.  But 
while  the  second  atom  is  being  formed,  it  and  the 
first  compound  their  moving  energies,  and  the  result- 
ant is  quite  a  modified  movement. 

The  first  atom,  completed  and  moved  in  a  right  line 
to  the  extent  of  half  its  diameter  from  its  original 
position,  must  carry  with  it  the  excess  of  energy 
given  on  one  side,  and  have  in  it  the  momentum  of 
its  own  mass  multiplied  into  this  excess,  thus  deter- 
mining a  continued  rate  of  moving;  but  this  con- 
tinued movement  cannot  be  rectilineal,  since  the 
moving  energy  is  at  once  compounded  with  the 
energies  essentially  in  the  newly  forming  atom. 
These  energies  of  the  forming  hold  on  to  those  of 
the  first  formed  atom  by  their  mutually  gravitating 
impulses,  and  also  turn  the  first  atom,  by  their  own 
constituent  revolution,  out  of  its  direct  line  of  de- 
parture from  its  old  position,  and  the  resultant  must 
be  a  movement  of  the  first  atom  about  the  position 
in  which  is  the  forming  second  atom.  This  second 
being  completed,  and  removed  as  was  the  first,  gives 
the  same  original  place  for  the  created  force  which 
begins  a  third  atom,  and  the  second  and  first  are 
then  acted  upon  by  the  forming  third  atom,  and  the 
resultants  become  increasingly^  complicated  with  every 
new  formed  atom.     Each  atom  and  the  forces  of  all 


EEVOLVING  FORCES  FASHION  THE  UNIVERSE.       243 

kinds  in  all  the  atoms  come  within  the  mechanical 
laws  of  composition  and  resultant,  and  while  the 
whole  is  clear  in  the  Absolute  Reason,  the  composi- 
tions soon  run  beyond  all  finite  insight.  Nor  is  it 
important  here  that  we  accurately  determine  any- 
thing further  than  the  general  result  of  all  the 
movements. 

All  created  atoms  thrown  out  of  their  original  place 
must  at  once  begin  revolving  about  that  place,  from 
the  revolving  movement  of  the  impulses  in  the  form- 
ing atom,  together  with  the  revolving  movement  given 
to  all  the  preceding  atoms.  These  outgoing  and 
revolving  atoms  also  act  upon  each  other  magneti- 
cally, and  thus  we  have  the  central  revolving  force,  the 
ejecting  force,  and  the  polar  forces  acting  in  composi- 
tion, the  resultant  of  which  must  be  a  movement  in 
opposite-handed  helical  circuits,  forming  a  hemisphere 
of  atoms  on  each  side  of  an  equatorial  plane,  and  con- 
stituting thereby  a  revolving  sphere  which  must  also 
have  its  own  magnetic  polarities.  So,  in  the  universal 
result,  there  must  be  an  augmenting  mass  of  created 
atoms  ensphering  themselves  in  the  aggregate  mag- 
netically, and  revolving  concentrically.  The  aggrega- 
tion can  at  no  time  make  the  mass  a  complete  sphere, 
since  the  atoms  approach  each  other  in  the  poles  of 
the  mass  with  similar  polarities  together,  and  which 
must  make  at  the  poles  mutual  repellencies,  thus  keep- 
ing the  polar  points  of  the  mass  open,  and  making  the 
universal  mass  of  atoms  rather  a  broad  spherical  ring 
than  a  completed  sphere.     The  revolving  force  from 


244  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

the  fashioning  Will  at  the  centre  goes  out  with  and 
works  in  every  atom,  and  so  reaches  every  portion 
of  the  aggregate  mass ;  and  such  revolving  energy 
may  be  intensified,  and  the  revolutionary  velocity 
augmented  at  pleasure.  The  original  Idea  in  the  Ab- 
solute Reason  is  in  this  way  brought  out  and  attained 
in  full  overt  expression,  and  what  the  universe  comes 
to  be  determines  what  that  primitive  Idea  was,  and 
we  may  speculatively  follow  out  the  process,  and  note 
the  mode  of  movement,  which  has  secured  for  the 
constituent  forces  of  the  universe  the  present  dis- 
tribution, arrangement,  and  orbital  movement. 

In  the  fulness  of  material,  place,  and  period  known 
in  the  divine  wisdom,  the  last  antagonist  atom  com- 
pleted the  material  elements  needed,  and  the  next 
force  made  was  diremptive,  beginning  the  construc- 
tion of  a  diremptive  atom.  The  new  diremptive 
force  took  the  same  place  in  which  all  the  antago- 
nist forces  had  been  created,  as  the  last  antagonist 
atom  had  been  moved  off,  and  this  diremptive  force 
was  revolved  on  its  mid-limit  of  expulses,  by  the 
fashioning  Will,  and  in  like  helical  circuits  as  in 
the  antagonist  impulses,  till  the  two  hemispheres 
together  filled  the  space  and  finished  the  first 
ethereal  atom  now  at  the  centre  of  the  aggregated 
and  revolving  material  atoms.  Thenceforward  were 
made  and  sent  off  successively  ethereal  atoms  con- 
tinuously, keeping  the  one  central  place  fixed  and 
filled,  and  the  movement  out  from  it  incessantly  con- 
tinuous;  thus  steadily   determining  a   common   uni- 


REVOLVING  FORCES  FASHION  THE  UNIVERSE.       245 

versal  place   and   period   in  the  one  Space  and  one 
Time. 

So  the  ethereal  atoms  were  multiplied  and  accumu- 
lated as  a  revolving  mass  within  the  expanding 
material  envelopment,  and  interfusing  themselves 
among  the  material  atoms  as  their  mass  expands, 
till  at  length  the  outpressing  ether  and  the  inpress- 
ing  matter  equilibrate ;  and  in  this  balance  of  diremp- 
tion  and  antagonism  the  creative  work  ceases,  and 
the  overt  real  is  the  copy  of  the  inner  ideal.  As 
two  equal  antagonist  and  diremptive  atoms  side  by 
side  would  hold  each  other  in  balance,  so  the  equal 
accumulation  of  each  kind  in  this  concentric  enspher- 
ing will  hold  each  in  its  general  place  respectively 
by  the  unbroken  equilibration.  The  heavens  and  the 
earth  were  thus  created  in  their  elements,  but  with 
neither  outer  distinctive  form*  nor  inner  consistency. 
Cohesions,  chemical  combinations,  and  crystallizations 
begin,  but  as  yet  the  universal  forces  hold  together 
as  a  whole  by  the  outgoing  central  diremption  bal- 
ancing the  incoming  gravity.  The  inner  sphere  is 
pure  ether ;  the  outer  envelope  is  chaotic  matter ;  but 
through  the  matter  the  ether  has  become  interfused 
sufiBciently  to  give  occasion  for  universal  heat-  and 
light-vibrations.  The  pure  ether  has  perfect  elasti- 
city, and  thus  unhindered  vibratory  movement ;  but 
where  antagonist  atoms  intermingle,  vibratory  motion 
is  impeded.  Mechanical  law  everywhere  prevails 
and  controls  in  keeping  the  whole  steadfast,  and 
the  parts  interacting  in  full  correlation  and  equiva- 


246  KNOWLEDGE   OlF  CREATION. 

lerice.  Nothing  is  fortuitous  nor  capricious,  but  all 
forces  are  within  the  central  sway  of  Eternal  Rea- 
son, insuring  the  coming  of  universal  beauty  and 
order. 

2.  The  Revolving  Force  determines  the  Separa- 
tion AND  Distribution  of  the  universal  Matter. — 
The  last  made  diremptive  force,  finishing  the  last 
Ethereal  Atom,  stands  with  its  expulses  in  the  same 
position  the  first  and  each  succeeding  force  has  oc- 
cupied. The  creating  Will  has  rested  from  his  work, 
but  the  fashioning  Will  still  maintains  his  energy,  and 
keeps  the  last  force,  and  thus  also  the  last  atom  per- 
petually revolving,  and  which  may  be  of  any  conceiv- 
able velocity.  The  atoms  act  on  each  other,  but  as 
vapor  or  fluid,  and  not  as  a  cohering  solid.  The 
central  movement  must  thus  be  the  most  rapid  and 
extending  outward  in  broader  and  thus  slower  cir- 
cuits, making  the  whole  movement  as  a  vortex  from 
centre  to  periphery.  The  entire  spherical  anuulus 
is  thus  in  measured  motion  about  its  centre,  at  ratios 
proportioned  to  the  distance  of  the  moving  atoms 
from  the  centre  ;  and  as  the  central  motion  goes  on, 
the  periphery,  though  always  slower  than  the  centre, 
must  still  -be  with  augmenting  velocity,  and  both 
from  the  revolving  impulse,  and  polar  repulsions, 
there  must  follow  equatorial  accumulations  and  an 
axial  revolving.  In  process  of  the  persistent  cen- 
tral working  there  must  come  at  length  the  starting- 
off  of  large  vapory  masses  from  the  periphery  of  the 


REVOLVING   FORCES   FASHION   THE   UNIVERSE.       247 

spherical   annulus,  some  nearer   the  poles,  but  most 
nearest  the  equator. 

In  speaking  of  this  revolving  universal  mass,  which 
from  the  similar  polarities  of  the  atoms  to  each  other 
at  the  extremities  of  the  polar  diameter  must  repel 
each  other,  and  thus  open  and  expand  the  polar 
regions  so  far  as  to  make  the  whole  a  spherical  annu- 
lus of  material  atoms,  yet  as  we  are  to  contemplate 
it,  will  the  whole  mass  of  matter  enveloping  the  in- 
terior ether  be  so  near  to  a  thick  spherical  shell 
about  it,  that  it  will  not  lead  astray  to  use  the  term 
sphere,  rather  than  the  longer  but  more  exact  ex- 
pression of  spherical  annulus.  In  the  augmenting 
rapidity  of  revolution,  and  thus  ejection  of  large 
superficial  portions  of  this  so  called  universal  sphere, 
should  the  ejecting  impetus  be  equable  in  every  part, 
the  particular  ejected  portion  would  move  ofif  on  its 
separate  way  with  no  one  part  moved  round  another, 
and  thereby  forming  an  axis  of  revolution  within  it- 
self But  such  exact  equality  of  impetus  would  sel- 
dom, if  ever,  occur.  The  natural  process  must  be, 
that  in  the  ejected  portion,  that  part  which  was 
moving  further  arid  faster  in  the  surface  of  the  uni- 
versal sphere  than  the  part  moving  shorter  and 
slower  a  little  within  this  surface,  will  on  ejection  run 
beyond  and  overlap  the  latter ;  and  further,  that  the 
less  superficial  part  must  leave  the  universal  sphere 
latest,  and  somewhat  adhering  to  and  slackened  in 
departure  from  the  sphere,  and  must  thereby  augment 
the  tendency  of  the  former  to  overwrap  the  latter ; 


248  KNOWLEDGE   OP   CREATION. 

and  so  the  ejected  portion  will  begin  its  separate 
journey  by  turning  upon  itself  and  forming  for  itself 
an  inward  axis  of  rotation.  The  general  ejecting  im- 
petus tangential  to  the  universal  sphere  is  com- 
pounded with  the  direct  attraction  of  the  sphere, 
giving  the  resultant  in  an  Orbit  around  the  old 
sphere,  or  around  any  central  world  into  wliich  the 
parts  may  subsequently  be  distributed.  The  rota- 
tion of  the  ejected  portion  on  its  own  axis  will  ac- 
cumulate from  the  polar  parts  about  the  equatorial 
region,  making  the  new  world  an  oblate  spheroid, 
and  so  steadying  the  movements  in  its  orbit  by  its 
rotation  on  its  own  axis,  that  this  axis  will  be  held 
parallel  with  itself  in  all  places. 

Other  superficial  portions  successively  pass  off  in 
the  same  way  till  the  material  shell  is  exhausted  in 
its  pieces,  and  yet  the  whole  is  a  universe  still ;  the 
distributed  worlds  are  as  stable  on  their  old  centre 
as  when  in  mass  together.  The  Ether  fills  all  inter- 
spaces, and  by  its  diremptive  energy  equilibrates 
all  gravitating  impulses,  while  the  superintending 
hand  of  Absolute  wisdom  and  power  is  on  the  centre, 
managing  every  movement. 

3.  Single  and  Compound  Worlds.  —  The  masses 
into  which  the  universal  sphere  breaks  up  will  at 
the  first  be  detached,  fleecy  forms,  with  no  similarity 
or  regularity  of  outline,  as  masses  of  cloud  break 
up  and  drift  apart  one  from  another.  Slowly  they 
gather    into    their    more     condensed    and    rounded 


SINGLE   AND   COMPOUND  WORLDS.  249 

shape,  as  their  gravitating  and  rotating  forces  fash- 
ion them. 

There  could  hardly  be  such  a  conjunction  of  dis- 
tinguishable antagonist,  diremptive,  and  revolving 
forces  working  at  the  separating  and  ejected  world, 
as  to  send  it  off  with  an  equal  and  direct  impulse  in 
every  part;  nor  can  we  see  a  reason  why  the  Cre- 
ator's hand  should  seek  so  to  adjust  the  forces ;  but 
should  such  equable  impetus  strike  off  a  superficial 
mass,  and  leave  it  to  its  own  action,  it  would  pass 
on  its  solitary  way,  a  single  world  with  no  attend- 
ant. We  cannot  say  such  worlds  are  not;  we  can 
only  say  that  the  forces,  in  their  determinate  action, 
give  no  occasion  to  anticipate  that  such  will  some- 
where be  constituted. 

But  should  some  masses  be  so  unequal  in  impulse 
and  movement  of  parts  as  to  break  asunder  on  their 
separation  from  the  great  sphere,  or  should  two  or 
three  separate  masses  move  off  from  the  surface 
nearly  at  once,  their  imparted  motion  and  their  mu- 
tual attractions  might  very  well  determine  for  them, 
at  the  start,  a  tendency  to  arrange  themselves  about 
some  common  centre  of  gravity  and  of  revolution, 
while  the  whole  combination  would  have  its  grand 
movement  about  the  great  sphere,  and  each  its  dis- 
tinct path  about  the  common  centre.  Such  may  be 
binary  or  ternary  worlds,  or  perhaps  so  combine  as 
to  be  quaternary,  and  all  will  have  their  determinate 
laws,  and  harmonious  and  safe  movements.  As 
viewed   from   other   worlds,  they   will   stand  to  the 


250  KNOWLEDGE  OF   CREATION. 

spectator  in  the  direction  of  their  own  common  orbi- 
tal plane,  and  there  appear  alternately  to  approach 
and  then  recede  from  each  other ;  or  as  perpendic- 
ular to  their  orbital  plane,  when  their  full  revolutions 
will  have  no  change  of  distance,  respectively,  from 
each  other  ;  or  they  may  stand  at  any  intervening 
inclination  of  their  plane,  and  appear  with  corre- 
sponding obliquities  of  revolution. 

Viewed  from  our  terrestrial  stand-point,  the  stars 
are  of  different  magnitudes,  and  the  numbers  greater 
as  the  magnitudes  diminish.  If  it  be  taken  for  a 
probable  fact  that  the  smaller  are  proportionally  more 
distant,  two  stars  of  unequal  magnitudes  may  readily 
appear  as  if  joined  in  system,  and  constituting  a  com- 
pound world.  But  when  lying  in  nearly  the  same 
line  of  vision,  while  one  may  be  at  a  great  remove 
beyond  the  other,  they  are  only  apparent  double- 
stars,  and  as  two  bodies  they  have  no  common  con- 
nection. More  than  six  thousand  double-stars  have 
been  noticed,  taken  in  both  hemispheres,  which  have 
no  more  probable  relation  than  other  stars,  except  as 
it  happens  that  they  lie  to  us  nearly  in  the  same  line 
of  vision.  But  all  cases  of  double-stars  are  not  mere- 
ly so  in  optical  appearance.  Taking  stars  to  the 
seventh  magnitude,  and  the  chance  that  they  should 
appear  within  4!'  of  each  other,  and  so  be  binary,  it 
has  been  computed  would  be  but  1  to  9870,  and  that 
they  should  appear  ternary,  but  as  1  to  173524 ;  and 
yet  of  ternary  combination  there  have  been  observed 
at  least  three,  and  of  binary  more  than  six  hundred. 


UNIVERSITI 

SYSTEMS  OP  WORLDS.  ^^^  £?^rVTl^i^^' 


There  is,  however,  more  direct  evidence  of  com- 
pound worlds,  than  that  they  appear  beyond  their 
proper  number  from  chances.  There  are  more  than 
six  hundred  and  fifty  that  have  been  noticed  as  hav- 
ing relative  motions,  and  not  by  parallax  from  our 
change  of  position ;  and  of  these,  sixteen,  at  least, 
have  had  their  orbits  determined,  and  some  have 
completed  more  than  one  revolution  since  their  dis- 
covery. The  periodical  times  of  these  ^physically 
double-stars  differ  from  thirty  to  six  hundred  and 
thirty  years.  Their  distance  and  their  non-polarized 
light  determine  them  to  be  suns  shining  by  their  own 
light,  and  not  planetary  bodies.  Whether  such  com- 
pound worlds  have  their  planetary  accompaniments 
can  be  known  by  no  present  methods  of  observation ; 
all  we  can  say  is,  they  have  communion  each  with 
each  in  their  revolutions. 

4.  Systems  of  Worlds.  —  A  large  nebulous  mass 
thrown  off  from  the  universal  sphere  must  soon  as- 
sume a  spherical  form  in  its  rotatory  movement,  and 
begin  to  acquire  consistency  from  its  gravitation  and 
incipient  cohesion.  The  condensation  will  be  com- 
paratively great  at  the  centre ;  and  if  the  surface  be 
of  a  comparative  levity  proportioned  to  its  distance, 
the  result,  in  many  cases,  will  be  that  the  superficial 
gravity  will  be  less  than  the  force  of  revolution,  when 
the  newly-formed  sphere  Avill  give  off  a  portion  of  its 
equatorial  surface,  and  this  ejected  portion  will  also 
turn   on  an  axis   of  its  own,  and  revolve  about  its 


252  KNOWLEDGE  OF   CREATION. 

primary,  and  be  carried  by  the  primary  around  the 
original  centre.  This  pnmary  becomes  a  Sun  to  its 
smaller  globe,  and  that  a  planet  revolving  around  it. 

The  rotation  of  a  planet  on  its  own  axis  must  be  in 
the  direction  of  that  of  the  primal  sun,  and  an  exact 
force  of  revolution  and  balance  of  gravity  would  put 
the  planet's  equator  in  the  plane  of  its  orbit,  and  this 
orbit  would  also  be  in  the  plane  of  the  sun's  equator. 
Disturbing  forces  must  be  anticipated  as  sure  to  in- 
terrupt such  regularity.  The  unequal  affinities,  and 
cohesions,  and  gravities  will  induce  unequal  accumu- 
lations about  the  sun's  equator,  and  the  planets  will 
be  sent  oflf  in  directions  intersecting  its  plane ;  and 
if  this  had  been  at  a  considerable  angle,  when  the 
sun's  revolutions  should  have  brought  up  to  its 
equator  the  superficial  matter  for  another  planet, 
the  excess  from  one  hemisphere  before  will  be  prob- 
ably balanced  by  a  corresponding  excess  from  the 
other  now,  and  this  planet  must  thus  go  off  at  an 
angle  inclined  to  the  plane  of  the  sun's  equator  on 
the  opposite  side.  Such  oscillation  from  side  to 
side,  in  planetary  inclinations  of  orbit,  would  be  a 
priori  probable,  and  also  that  their  axes  should  be 
in  lines  variously  inclined  to  each  other.  Should  a 
planetary  axis  of  revolution  be  so  formed,  by  un- 
equal force  of  ejectment  on  one  side  of  its  centre, 
or  the  unequal  quantity  of  matter  and  its  gravity 
on  one  side,  as  to  carry  its  inclination  more  than  90° 
from  the  normal  plane,  in  such  case  its  rotation  on 


SYSTEMS  OF   WORLDS.  253 

its  axis  would  be  reversed,  and  the  movement  be 
retrograde. 

This  rotating  planet,  again,  carries  its  superficial 
portions  to  its  equatorial  region,  making  the  planet 
oblate ;  and  in  some  cases  of  a  planet  the  force  of 
revolution  may  be  sufficient  to  eject  portions  of  its 
surface  at  the  equator  once,  or  repeatedly,  and  the 
planet  thus  have  one  satellite  or  moie  which  it 
carries  with  it  about  the  sun.  The  planets  and 
their  satellites  condense  gradually  to  comparatively 
small  dimensions  compared  with  their  first  sizes,  but 
their  orbits  must  be  of  much  the  same  diameter  from 
the  first.  It  may  sometimes  be,  that  the  conditions 
shall  accumulate  so  homogeneous  and  equable  equa- 
torial surface  about  the  planet,  and  the  revolving 
force  be  so  assisted  by  satellite  attractions,  that  the 
matter  shall  not  separate  itself,  but  be  raised  from 
the  body  of  the  planet,  which  also  condenses  be- 
neath, and  this  equatorial  portion  become  a  ring 
entirely  about  the  planet.  While  it  retains  its  va- 
porous or  fluid  state,  it  may  revolve  about  the 
planet,  and  adjust  itself  to  any  unequal  attractions ; 
but  should  it  become  cohesive  and  unyielding,  a 
violent  disturbing  force  must  rupture  it,  or  throw 
down  one  part  of  it  upon  the  body  of  the  planet. 

At  any  subsequent  times,  the  then  present  state 
of  the  worlds  must  indicate  what  has  been  their 
cosmological  history.  As  we  now  look  on,  we  may 
read  that  the  sun  has  passed  from  its  superficial 
accumulation    about   the   great   sphere,   and   at  the 


254  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

time  of  its  ejectioi)  was  a  nebulous  mass  that  filled 
the  whole  place  within  the  orbit  of  its  outside  planet, 
and  its  periodic  time  of  rotation  on  its  axis  then  was 
the  periodic  time  of  this  farthest  planet  in  its  orbital 
revolution.  The  planetary  bodies  have  since  been 
successively  thrown  off  in  their  vaporous  or  fluid 
state,  and  they  have  thrown  off  their  satellites,  and 
all  have  condensed  and  settled  into  their  present 
positions,  from  volumes  of  matter  that  was  filling 
the  whole  place  within  their  orbits,  and  revolving 
on  their  own  axes  at  the  periodic  times  of  these 
present  worlds  in  their  orbits,  and  which  periodic 
times  these  bodies  have  from  the  first  observed. 

An  older  history  is  still  further  back,  when  the 
suns  and  systems  were  a  contiguous  collection  of 
atoms  filling  all  the  place  within  the  grand  range 
of  the  furthest  star,  and  when  the  ether,  that  is  now 
diffused  through  all  the  interstellary  spaces  as  the 
medium  for  light-  and  heat-vibrations,  was  then  an 
inner  sphere  beneath  the  superincumbent  shell  of 
universal  matter,  expanding  and  revolving  this  shell 
till  by  installments  it  became  disrupted  and  thrown 
into  the  suns  and  systems  which  we  call  fixed  stars, 
because  their  distance  forbids  that  we  should  find 
for  them  either  apparent  size  or  motion.  The  uni- 
versal law  of  mechanics  was  inherent  in  these  forces 
at  their  first  constitution,  and  all  the  resultant  facts 
of  planetary  systems  have  been  determined  by  it. 
The  necessary  laws  of  gravity  and  universal  motion 
contain    within    them    Kepler's    laws    of   planetary 


REVOLVING   FORCE  SOLVES   INEXPLICABLE  FACTS.     255 

revolution,  and  all  go  back  to  the  Absolute  thought 
and  will  which  fixed  the  first  simple  impulses  in 
their  antagonism,  and  set  them  in  revolving  move- 
ment on  their  central  limit  by  the  repetitions  of  sim- 
ilar creations. 

5.  The  Revolving  Force  has  determined  several 
Phenomena  otherwise  inexplicable.  —  The  general 
results  in  these  cases  should  so  be  as  before  given, 
while  inequalities  and  varieties  are  such  as  different 
conditions  might  well  be  supposed  to  have  occasioned, 
and  sometimes  the  modifying  conditions  are  quite 
patent.  These  phenomena  occur  in  our  own  system, 
and  may  be  taken  as  indices  of  similar  phenomena  in 
other  systems. 

1.  Chradations  in  planetary  density.  Varied  den- 
sities, and  of  wholly  irregular  measures,  would  result 
from  planetary  formations  by  independent  Causes; 
but  if  they  have  been  successively  thrown  off  from 
the  same  solar  mass,  they  must  gradually  have  a 
general  increase  of  density  from  the  further  or  out- 
side planets.  And  such  is  the  general  fact,  with 
irregularities  slightly  occurring,  that  might  readily 
be  expected  from  peculiar  circumstances  slightly 
modifying  the  condensations.  The  most  noticeable 
is  the  specific  gravity  of  the  sun  itself,  which  is 
but  about  the  density  of  Jupiter,  when  as  central 
it  should  be  denser  than  any  planet.  The  immense 
photosphere  of  imponderable  flame  greatly  enlarging 
the  sun's  apparent  volume,  and  which,  as  the  divisor 


256  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

of  the  mass  in  attaining  density  will  give  too  small  a 
quotient,  is  a  sufficient  explanation. 

2.  Gradation  of  interplanetary  spaces.  A  regular 
gradation  of  spaces  between  the  planets  would  not 
happen  from  independent  causes  of  separation ;  but 
thrown  off  from  one  solar  body  successively  as  that 
body  successively  diminished,  the  spaces  between 
would  gradually  diminish  from  the  outer  inward. 
The  facts  are,  that  the  interplanetary  spaces  are  a 
near  approach  to  a  duplicate  ratio  on  each  remove 
from  the  inner  planet. 

3.  Inclination  of  planetary  orbits.  If  the  planets 
were  thrown  from  the  solar  sphere  by  a  revolving  force, 
we  should  expect  a  general  conformity  of  orbit  to  the 
plane  of  the  solar  equator,  with  varieties  occasioned 
by  circumstantial  unequal  accumulations  about  the 
equatorial  region  before  the  planetary  ejection.  •  If 
we  suppose  the  plane  of  the  sun's  equator  to  have 
been  between  the  orbits  of  Neptune  and  Uranus 
when  they  successively  were  thrown  off,  we  shall 
have  balancing  alternations  from  side  to  side  of  from 
half  a  degree  to  three  and  a  half,  till  we  come  to 
Mercury,  whose  ejection  was  on  an  advance,  and  not 
return  swing,  and  then  we  have  the  sun's  present 
equator  still  a  trifle  in  advance  of  the  orbit  of 
Mercury.  Nothing  would  seem  to  account  for  such 
near  conformity  of  orbits  so  well  as  revolving  pro- 
jections from  the  solar  sphere. 

4.  Periodic  times  and  heliocentric  movement.  On 
the  supposition  of  successive  ejections  from  the  sun's 


REVOLVING   FORCE   SOLVES   INEXPLICABLE   FACTS.     257 

body,  the  periodic  times  of  revolution  by  the  planets 
should  bear  a  general  proportion  to  their  distance 
from  the  centre ;  and  so  also  with  their  heliocentric 
motions,  the  greater  periodic  time  and  the  less  helio- 
centric movement  should  be  in  the  further  planet.  And 
these  gradations  are,  in  fact,  so  in  accordance  with  re- 
volving-force requisition  that  no  other  cause  need  be 
sought  in  explanation.  And  with  the  sun's  present 
rate  of  revolution  and  heliocentric  motion  in  the  equa- 
torial periphery,  were  another  planet  now  to  be 
thrown  off  inside  of  Mercury,  there  would  be  corre- 
sponding shortened  revolution  and  accelergfted  move- 
ment. 

5.  Tlie  orbits  of  the  satellites  should  present  greater 
irregularities  than  those  of  the  planets.  Exactly  bal- 
anced material  would  give  exact  motion,  and  throw  all 
orbits  in  the  plane  of  the  sun's  equator.  But  the 
planets  should  have  been  anticipated  to  be  thrown 
off  as  excess  of  accumulation  from  side  to  side  of  the 
solar  equator,  and  so  with  some  but  not  large  inequal- 
ities in  the  inclinations  of  their  orbits.  Then  their 
own  unbalanced  matter  at  first  about  their  centres 
will  more  widely  derange  the  inclinations  of  their  re- 
spective axes,  and  thus  furnish  occasion  for  quite 
wide  varieties  in  the  movements  of  the  satellites  they 
shall  eject  in  their  own  revolutions.  Should  such  oc- 
casions of  disparity  conspire,  in  a  particular  case,  to 
make  the  inclination  of  the  satellite  orbits  more  than 
90°  from  a  normal  plane,  it  would  reverse  the  order 
17 


258  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

of  their  revolution,  and  make  the  satellite-movements 
to  be  retrograde. 

Taking*  the  earth's  orbit  as  in  the  normal  plane,  and 
looking  out  from  the  sun's  centre,  and  then  taking  the 
right  hand  to  be  our  northern  hemisphere,  and  the 
eye  directly  in  the  plane  looking  westward,  as  we 
have  our  face,  we  shall  there  view  the  revolutions  of 
the  system  passing  on  from  westward  to  eastward, 
and  such  as  are  in  and  parallel  with  the  ecliptic  will 
move  squarely  direct,  and  such:  as  may  vary  from  the 
plane,  inclined  on  either  hand,  will  move  obliquely 
direct  according  to  the  degree  of  inclination,  and 
when  such  inclination  shall  pass  beyond  a  perpendicu- 
lar to  the  plane,  the  movement  of  the  body  in  such 
orbit  will  be  reversed,  and  become  obliquely  retro- 
grade. 

The  earth  is  the  first  from  the  sun  among  the  plan- 
ets having  a  satellite,  and  the  moon's  orbit  has  an  in- 
clination of  about  5°  to  the  ecliptic,  and  is  thus  direct 
with  little  obliquity;  while  the  equatorial  plane  of 
the  earth  inclines  to  the  ecliptic  about  23|-°,  with  a 
direct  motion  indeed  on  its  own  axis,  but  largely 
oblique. 

Jupiter  is  the  next  with  satellites,  of  which  there 
are  four,  nearly  in  the  same  plane,  and  this  common 
plane  of  the  satellites  also  nearly  in  the  same  plane 
as  the  planet's  equator  and  orbit,  and  all  less  than  1^° 
inclined  to  the  ecliptic ;  and  thus  all  the  movements  of 
Jupiter  and  his  satellites  are  very  nearly  squarely 
direct. 


REVOLVING  FORCE  SOLVES  INEXPLICABLE  PACTS.  259 

Saturn  is  next,  with  eight  satellites  and  a  ring,  all 
moving  nearly  in  the  same  plane,  except  the  exterior 
satellite,  which  varies  from  the  common  plane  about 
12°,  and  this  common  plane  is  about  28°  inclined  to 
the  ecliptic ;  and  so  the  Saturnian  movements  are  all 
direct,  though  largely  oblique. 

We  then  have  Uranus,  known  to  have  four  satel- 
lites with  orbits  nearly  in  a  common  plane,  and  which 
stands  inclined  to  the  ecliptic  about  69° ;  and  yet  the 
Uranian  satellites  are  retrograde  in  their  revolutions 
though  quite  considerably  within  90°  inclination  to 
the  ecliptic.  Here  is  nn  anomaly,  long  noticed  and 
hitherto  inexplicable.  It  would  still  remain  inexplica- 
ble if  we  were  obliged  to  take  the  pole  of  the  Ura- 
nian axis,  which  is  at  the  right  of  the  ecliptic,  as  the 
end  of  the  axis  which  was  thrown  up  from  its  normal 
position  perpendicular  to  the  ecliptic,  on  the  same 
side,  in  the  forming  and  rotating  process ;  since,  as  so 
affording  less  than  90°  inclination,  there  could  not  be 
a  reversal  of  its  movement.  But,  if  this  right  hand 
pole  were  advanced  to  its  present  position,  frorii  its 
normal  perpendicular  position  on  the  left  hand,  then 
would  the  inclination  pass  beyond  90°  to  about  101°, 
and  make  the  movement  very  decidedly  retrograde. 
Such  is  to  be  the  contemplation,  if  we  consider  the 
axis  of  the  plane  of  the  satellite-revolution  to  be  also 
the  axis  of  the  planet;  but  as  such  Uranian  axis  is 
not  known,  and  which  perhaps  may  be  as  oblique  as 
the  earth's  axis  to  that  of  the  moon's  orbital  plane,  or 
about  18|^°,  this  would  leave  the  rotation  of  Saturn 


260  KNOWLEDGE   OF  CREATION. 

direct  on  its  own  axis,  while  its  satellites  have  gone 
to  a  degree  of  inclination  reversing  their  movement. 

6.  Planetoids  and  Saturnian  ring.  The  first  dis- 
covery of  a  Planetoid  was  on  the  first  day  of  the  year 
1801,  and  in  1870  there  had  been  found  one  hundred 
and  ten  planetoids.  They  are  all  within  the  appropriate 
region  between  Mars  and  Jupiter  for  a  single  planet, 
and  have  general  conformity  and  characteristics  with 
the  planets,  differing  most  in  diminutive  volume,  and 
varied  ellipticity  and  inclination  of  their  orbits.  The 
largest  is  about  five  hundred  miles  in  diameter,  and 
the  smallest  may  be  no  more  than  fifty  miles  diameter ; 
the  aggregate  volume  of  all  is  equal  only  to  a  small 
planet.  Their  movements  are  direct,  but  their  diver- 
sity from  the  planets  and  among  themselves  in  incli- 
nation and  eccentricity  of  orbits,  longitude  of  ascend- 
ing node,  and  longitude  of  perihelion,  have  been  inex- 
plicable. The  determinations  of  a  revolving  force 
consistently  account  for  all  these  peculiarities. 

When  the  great  planet  Jupiter,  whose  mass  is  more 
than  three  hundred  and  thirty-eight  times  that  of  the 
earth,  had  been  just  separated  from  the  solar  sphere, 
its  attraction  of  the  portion  of  the  sphere  close  be- 
neath must  have  given  to  the  equatorial  accumulations 
upon  it  a  very  peculiar  state  and  position  for  consti- 
tuting the  next  planet,  and  specially  fitted  for  forming 
the  planetoids.  As  the  solar  sphere  revolved  on  its 
axis  under  so  large  an  attracting  body,  its  equatorial 
gathering  must  have  been  much  hastened,  and  this 
protuberance  must  have  been  much  disturbed   and 


EEVOLVING  FORCE  SOLVES  INEXPLICABLE  FACTS.     261 

drawn  away  from  an  equable  diffusion  about  the  whole 
equatorial  part  to  a  rising  tide  following  along  under 
the  moving  planet.  This  equatorial  accumulation 
could  not  thus  be  retained  till  it  should  ultimately  be 
sent  off  in  a  large  mass ;  but  on  the  collection  becom- 
ing somewhat  considerable,  and  rising  up  directly  be- 
neath the  large  planet  Jupiter,  the  revolving  force 
must  have  seized  its  crest  and  taken  off  the  tide-wave, 
so  to  speak,  in  detached  portions.  The  first  planetoid 
was  thus  prematurely  formed,  and  then  followed  oth- 
ers in  successive  installments,  till  the  least  distant 
from  the  sun  was  taken  in  the  same  way,  and  sent 
revolving  round  it  at  (^uite  a  delayed  period,  and  at 
last  the  balancing  relief  was  attained,  as  if  all  had 
been  expelled  in  one  planet.  The  ordinary  accumu- 
lations afterwards  went  on,  with  a  density  too  great 
and  an  attraction  too  small,  that  they  should  thence- 
forth be  taken  off  piecemeal;  and  Mars  came  next  —  a 
regular  but  smaller  planet. 

This  tide-crest  under  Jupiter  must  have  been  per- 
petually passing  round  the  whole  equatorial  circle  of 
the  solar  sphere,  and  thus  determining  the  wide  dif- 
ferences respectively  of  longitude  of  perihelion  and 
longitude  of  ascending  node ;  and  the  unequal  attrac- 
tions of  Jupiter,  as  in  his  revolutions  he  passed  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  solar  equator,  must  have  occa- 
sioned wide  disparities  in  orbital  inclinations.  With 
such  a  planet  as  Jupiter,  his  next  inferior  planet  could 
not  have  been  matured  and  thrown  off  in  one  projec- 
tion ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  could  the  peculiar  plan- 


262  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

etoid  formations  have  taken  place  without  just  such 
preponderances  of  planetary  attractions  and  tidal 
elevations.  The  planetoids  must  have  occurred  be- 
tween Jupiter  and  Mars,  and  could  have  been  consti- 
tuted between  no  other  planets  of  the  system. 

The  rings  of  Saturn  are  the  opposites  of  the  plan- 
etoids, and  are  an  unbroken  satellite,  inasmuch  as  they 
are  a  separation  from  the  planet  on  all  sides.  Saturn 
is  the  least  dense  of  all  the  planets,  and  has  sent  off 
from  his  own  body  a  larger  proportion  of  equatorial 
accumulations  than  any  other.  He  has  eight  satel- 
lites, and  a  ring  in  the  equatorial  plane  about  the 
planet  and  between  its  own  body  and  the  orbit  of  the 
inferior  satellite.  This  ring  has  two  main  divisions 
concentrically  by  a  comparatively  narrow  space  be- 
tween them,  and  a  transparent  portion  of  the  inner 
ring  stretches  downward  as  a  veil  towards  the  surface 
of  the  planet.  The  exterior  ring  is  about  ten  thou- 
sand five  hundred  miles  in  depth,  and  the  interior  is 
more  than  seventeen  thousand  miles  deep,  and  their 
dividing  space  is  about  eighteen  hundred  miles,  and 
exclusive  of  the  pending  veil,  the  lower  edge  of  the 
interior  ring  is  about  nineteen  thousand  miles  above 
the  surface  of  the  planet.  These  main  rings  have 
also  apparent  slight  subdivisions.  The  edge  of  the 
ring  in  direct  line  of  vision  is  barely  perceptible,  and 
cannot  be  more  than  fifty  miles  in  thickness.  The 
ring  is  together  slightly  eccentric,  and  thus  balances 
itself  on  a  moving  point  about  the  centre  of  Saturn, 
and  must  be  a  vapor  or  a  fluid,  or,  as  some  deem,  an 


REVOLVING  FORCE  SOLVES  INEXPLICABLE  FACTS.      263 

accumulation  of  separate  granular  bodies.  Such  a 
phenomenon  nowhere  else  in  the  heavens  presents 
itself. 

But  the  peculiar  conditions  readily  supposable 
explain  why  there  was  this  flat  ring  rather  than  a 
spherical  satellite.  If  the  eight  satellites  of  Saturn 
were,  at  a  favorable  state  of  the  equatorial  accumu- 
lation, preUy  evenly  distributed,  in  their  respective 
orbits,  about  the  body  of  the  planet,  their  attraction 
in  composition  with  the  even  revolving-force  all 
through  the  equatorial  surface,  instead  of  throwing 
the  whole  out  and  otf  at  one  place,  would  raise  the 
whole  in  all  places,  and  permit  the  body  of  Saturn  to 
condense  and  revolve  on  its  axis  beneath  the  ring 
thus  formed,  while  the  ring  would  revolve  in  its 
own  place  with  the  force  it  had  when  on  the  body, 
and  has  retained  since  its  separation.  Such  a  re- 
volving ring  must  throw  its  vaporous  or  fluid  matter 
into  a  thin  plane,  and  might  very  probably  be  ex- 
pected to  make  a  permanent  separation  between  a 
denser  part  thrown  furthest  and  highest,  and  a 
lighter  part  with  a  thin  veil  hanging  from  it  below, 
and  thus  by  its  own  action  to  work  itself  into  what 
is  its  prcijent  shape  and  position.  So  long  as  the 
condensation  is  not  a  solid,  it  may  have  its  revolv- 
ing flow  unbroken,  and  accommodate  itself  to  any 
limited  disturbing  attractions.  Nothing  could  deter- 
mine such  a  ring  but  such  equable  attraction  and 
force  of  revolution,  and  with  such  its  formation  was 
a  necessary  result.     No  other  planet  has  the  rarity 


264  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

of  matter,  and  the  number  of  satellites,  to  permit 
that  it  encircle  itself  with  such  a  revolving  ring, 
anywhere  else  in  the  system. 

7.  The  same  matter  is  co-extensive  with  the  universe. 
It  has  been  found  that  a  sodium  flame  gives  a 
yellow  band  across  the  spectrum,  at  the  same  rela- 
tive place  in  it  as  a  dark  line  is  given  in  the  solar 
spectrum,  and  which,  from  special  observations  made 
by  him  in  obtaining  this  and  other  relative  spectral 
lines,  has  been  known  as  the  line  of  Fraunhofer. 
Further  experiment  reveals,  that  an  intense  white 
light  put  behind  the  yellow  sodium-flame  gives  a 
spectrum  with  a  dark  band  in  the  place  of  the  yel- 
low^, the  sodium  yellow  having  absorbed  the  yel- 
low that  was  blended  in  the  white  light  put  behind 
it.  The  general  conclusion  is,  "  A  flame  absorbs 
rays  of  the  same  refrangibility  as  those  which  itself 
emits." 

Applying  this  generalization  to  particular  flames 
determines  particular  substances.  The  incandescent 
body  of  the  sun,  with  its  yellow  vaporous  flame  be- 
fore it,  gives  the  dark  Fraunhofer  line  in  the  solar 
spectrum  just  where  it  is  by  the  sodium-blaze  with 
the  white  light  behind,  and  thus  evincing  the  pres- 
ence of  sodium  in  the  substance  of  the  solar  body. 
Appropriating  the  different  Fraunhofer  lines  in  the 
solar  spectrum,  with  those  of  diff'erent  substances  in 
the  lines  made  by  their  respective  flames  in  their 
particular  spectrum,  each  with  each,  it  has  been  con- 
cluded that  the   substance  of  the  sun  has  also  the 


COMETS   COME  INTO  THE  SYSTEM.  265 

metals  calcium,  magnesium,  barium,  iron,  nickel,  cop- 
per, chromium,  and  zinc  added  to  the  sodium  first 
found ;  and  similar  experiments  with  the  fixed  stars 
find  a  portion  of  the  same  substances  entering  into 
their  composition.  Such  experiments  find,  what  the 
formation  of  the  systems  by  revolving  forces  deter- 
mines must  be,  the  same  matter  everywhere  univer- 
sally diffused.  A  careful  examination  of  the  sun's 
spots  determines  a  luminous  atmosphere  about  the 
body  of  the  sun,  of  much  more  intense  brightness  than 
the  body  itself;  it  is  not  thus  the  sun's  substance 
that  is  white  beneath  the  outer  flame,  but  the  in- 
tenser  lower  portion  of  the  photosphere  has  its  rays 
stricken  down  in  passing  through  the  colored  flame 
above,  which  absorbs  as  it  emits,  and  determines  the 
Fraunhofer  lines,  and  gives  the  substance  of  the 
flame,  and  not  that  of  the  sun. 

This  photosphere  is  gaseous,  inasmuch  as  its  light 
has  no  polarization ;  and  whether  induced  by  mete- 
oric matter  impinging  by  gravity  upon  the  sun,  or 
other  cause,  the  same  eflSciency  for  perpetual  light- 
and  heat-vibrations  will  apply  to  all  centres  of  sys- 
tems. 

6.  Comets  come  into  the  System  from  without. 
—  Matter  both  atomic  and  molecular  will  still  be 
diffused  through  the  interstellary  spaces  when  the 
systems  have  been  constituted  by  the  central  revolv- 
ing force.  It  will  ordinarily  be  too  rare  to  interrupt 
and  reflect  the  light-vibrations,  but  in  some  collected 


266  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

masses  it  may  be  expected  to  have  consistency  suffi- 
cient to  retain  form,  and  be  made  luminous.  As 
Separate  from  the  systems  it  may  be  known  as  mete- 
oric matter,  and  must  move  in  the  general  revolution 
of  the  central  force,  and  portions  of  it  must  also  feel 
and  obey  the  interactions  of  stellar  attraction,  and 
fall  within  the  eddies  and  cross-tides  which  must  be 
induced  between  the  moving  forces.  Some  portions 
may  move  wholly  outside  of  any  system,  and  remain 
unknown  to  observers  within ;  others  may  come  in 
and  pass  out  of  a  system ;  and  a  few  of  the  many  may 
be  caught  and  retained  permanently  by  the  attrac- 
tions of  the  system.  Such  meteoric  matter  appear- 
ing within  a  system,  of  considerable  volume  and  de- 
terminable movement,  is  known  as  a  Comet,  whether 
once  passing  through  and  off,  or  revolving  statedly 
within  it.  Those  of  the  former  may  pass  in  hyper- 
bolic or  paraboHc  curves;  the  latter  Avill  have  full 
orbits  more  or  less  elliptical ;  and  the  movements  of 
either  may  be  direct  or  retrograde,  inasmuch  as  they 
may  enter  the  system  from  any  direction. 

The  facts  as  observed  correspond  Avith  such  specu- 
lative liabilities.  They  are  so  rare  in  consistency, 
that  a  fixed  star  before  which  the  comet  has  moved 
shines  through  the  most  central  part  of  it  with  undi- 
minished lustre,  and  though  the  motion  of  the  planets 
is  not  appreciably  obstructed  by  the  ethereal  media, 
that  of  the  comets  has  a  noticeable  retardation. 
Some  have  come  into  the  system,  and  made  more 
than  one  regular  revolution  in  it,  and  then  have  been 


COMETS   COME  INTO  THE  SYSTEM.  267 

lost  to  any  further  observation  ;  and  another  has  part- 
ed into  two  within  full  observation,  and  the  two  for 
months  visibly  receded  from  each  other,  and  on  their 
periodic  return  both  again  appeared,  but  they  were 
a  million  and  an  half  miles  asunder.  Of  two  hundred 
comets  whose  elements  were  determined,  the  largest 
portion  were  found  to  be  parabolic,  and  nearly  equal 
in  direct  and  retrograde  movements,  w^hile  forty  of  the 
number  only  were  of  elliptical  orbits.  Of  these  forty 
revolving  within  the  system,  thirteen  have  their  mean 
distances  within  the  orbit  of  Saturn,  six  within  the  orbit 
of  Uranus,  and  twenty-one  beyond  any  known  planet. 
The  least  of  these  cometary  orbits  whose  mean  dis- 
tances are  beyond  Neptune  is  thirty-three  times 
larger  than  that  of  the  earth,  and  the  greatest  is  two 
thousand  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  times  larger 
than  the  earth's  orbit.  Of  the  thirteen  within  Saturn 
there  is  an  approach  to  planetary  conformity  in  inclina- 
tion and  eccentricity,  and  they  are  all  alike  in  direct 
movement.  Of  the  six  within  Uranus,  there  is  great 
diversity  of  inclination  from  18°  nearly  to  a  perpen- 
dicular, greatly  augmented  eccentricity,  and  one  of 
them  has  "retrograde  movement.  Of  the  twenty-one 
beyond  Neptune  there  are  similar  varieties  of  inclina- 
tion, great  eccentricity  making  the  opposite  sides  of 
the  orbit  for  a  long  distance  nearly  parallel,  and  as 
nearly  equally  divided  as  possible  in  movement,  hav- 
ing ten  direct  and  eleven  retrograde. 

While  these  diversities  forbid  the  supposition  that 
the  comets  have  been  thrown  from  a  common  centra] 


268  KNOWLEDGE   OP   CREATION. 

source  with  the  planets,  those  within  the  system  may 
find  the  determinations  of  conformity  to  planetary 
movement  from  forces  acting  upon  them  since  their 
introduction.  The  less  velocity,  which  permitted 
them  on  entering  to  be  retained,  would  secure  di- 
minished eccentricity  generally  proportioned  to  their 
confinement  within  the  system ;  but  especially  the 
orbital  inclinations^  and  the  direct  and  retrograde 
movements  J  may  be  referred  for  their  classified  dif- 
ferences to  forces  acting  upon  the  comets  within  the 
system,  but  which  do  not  reach  them  when  beyond 
the  system.  Thus  all  the  comets,  whose  mean  dis- 
tance is  within  the  orbit  of  Saturn,  must  perpetually 
move  within  the  sphere  of  Saturn's  attraction,  added 
to  the  aggregate  attraction  of  all  the  planets  within 
Saturn's  orbit.  Let,  then,  a  comet  commence  its 
revolution  at  any  extreme  degree  of  inclination,  and 
the  aggregate  attractions  in  the  plane  of  the  comet's 
orbit  will  have  their  excess  on  one  side  of  it,  and 
draw  the  comet  in  its  course  to  that  side ;  and  such 
conspiring  attractions  must  bring  the  plane  of  the 
comet's  orbit  in  nearer  conformity  to  the  mean 
plane  of  the  planetary  orbits  ;  hence  the  inclinations 
of  orbit  with  this  class  of  comets  are,  with  one  lit- 
tle augmented  exception,  less  than  the  most  inclined 
orbit  of  the  planetoids.  Such  gradually  changing  orbit 
must  at  length  find  its  place  of  general  equilibrium 
from  one  perihelion  passage  to  another,  and  hence- 
forth oscillate  back  and  forth  as  any  excesses  or 
deficiencies  in  particular  revolutions  may  induce,  and 


COMETS  COME  INTO   THE  SYSTEM.  269 

each  comet  in  its  orbit  will  find  its  own  balance  in  its 
own  aggregate  attractions.  Tbose  revolving  beyond 
the  range  of  such  attractions  will  keep  their  original 
orbital  places. 

And  in  reference  to  direct  and  retrograde  move- 
ment, a  comet  moving  concurrently  with  the  planets 
will  have  more  attraction  from  them  in  its  revolution 
than  when  more  quickly  passing  them  in  occurrent 
movement.  A  retrograde  movement  will  have  its 
concurrence  with  the  planets  in  that  part  of  its  orbit 
which  is  most  remote  from  them  while  they  are  in 
the  most  remote  part  of  their  orbits,  and  occurrent 
with  the  planets  in  that  part  of  its  orbit  which  is 
nearest  to  them  while  they  are  in  the  nearest  part  of 
their  orbits.  The  retrograde  comet  must  thus  be 
drawn  in  opposite  directions  in  the  opposite  portions 
of  its  orbit,  and  thus  augmenting  its  longitude  with 
every  revolution,  till  it  shall  reach  its  culmination,  and 
turn  from  its  westing  to  its  easting  movement,  and 
which  will  be  its  change  from  retrograde  to  direct 
movement.  Afterwards  the  comet  and  planet  move 
concurrent  in  the  parts  of  their  orbits  nearest  each 
other,  and  all  further  change  of  longitude  ceases, 
except  as  occasional  modifications  occur  in  particular 
revolutions  back  and  forward.  Hence  all  comets 
within  the  system  are  now  direct,  except  Halley's 
comet,  and  which  may  be  with  every  revolution 
approaching  its  climacteric  from  a  westward  to  an 
eastward  movement. 


270  KNOWLEDGE   OF  CREATION. 

7.  Geological  Formations.  —  Geology,  as  the  name 
imports,  is  the  science  of  the  internal  constitution  of 
the  earth.  We  can  know  little  of  the  inner  con- 
struction of  any  of  the  worlds  of  our  system  except 
that  of  the  earth.  Yet  what  we  know  of  our  world 
may  be  applied  by  analogy  to  the  other  worlds  of  the 
solar  system,  and  our  system  may  also  be  taken 
as  analogous  to  all  systems  of  worlds.  But  even  of 
our  earth,  almost  its  whole  interior  is  hidden  from 
observation,  and  by  no  human  process  as  yet  has 
more  than  eight  or  ten  miles  deep  of  some  portions 
of  its  superficial  construction  been  examined.  What 
we  do  know  is,  however,  directly  in  accordance  with 
the  determinations  of  our  speculative  philosophy,  in 
its  revolving  force  for  the  world-formations. 

The  immediate  leading  facts  relative  to  this  superfi- 
cial crust  of  the  earth  are,  that  it  has  extensively  and 
repeatedly  been  broken  through  and  turned  up  by 
internal  forces,  and  that  large  portions  of  the  frac- 
tured strata  have  been  set  edgewise  to  the  surface, 
dipping  less  or  more  towards  the  horizon;  and  such 
upturned  edges  disclose  the  contents  of  the  several 
strata  and  the  order  of  their  superposition  in  their 
previous  horizontal  state,  and  thus  by  analogy  dis- 
closing the  state  of  the  earth's  crust  which  has  had 
no  upheaval. 

As  found  underlying  the  other  strata  is  the  Granite 
of  an  unknown  thickness,  and  which  unmistakably 
evinces  the  earlier  and  wide  action  of  intense  heat 
from  its  sub-crystallized  composition  in  its  cooled  and 


GEOLOGICAL  FORMATIONS.  271 

solid  form.  Above  the  granite  is  the  Gneiss,  of  great 
thickness,  and  on  this  rests  the  stratum  of  Mica  schist 
many  thousand  feet  in  its  depth.  All  these  compose 
what  has  been  known  as  the  Cumbrian  Formation, 
and  in  which  nothing  but  the  mechanical  forces  of 
inorganic  matter  appear. 

The  Cambrian  system  of  old  Slate  stone,  a  mile  in 
thickness  through  all  its  stratifications,  overlies  the 
Cumbrian  ;  and  here  begin  the  indices  that  atmospheric 
air  and  water  were  contemporaneous  with  their  forma- 
tion, and  that  with  the  earliest  fossil  remains  they 
must  have  been  deposited  beneath  the  water  on  the 
cooled  crust  above  the  fire.  Then  comes  the  Silu- 
rian system,  of  a  mile  and  an  half  in  its  depth,  with 
hundreds  of  extinct  species  of  fossil  organizations. 
Above  is  the  Secondary  Formation,  with  its  old  red 
sandstone,  made  up  of  older  rocks  fractured  and  dis- 
integrated, and  anew  deposited,  of  a  depth  of  many 
thousand  feet,  with  many  old  fossil  remains  ;  and  on 
which  again  are  interposed  layers  of  limestone  and 
coal  formation,  the  new  red  sandstone,  the  oolite, 
and  chalk  beds  ;  all  filling  a  space  several  miles  deep. 
Higher  still  towards  the  surface  is  the  Tertiary  For- 
mation, of  lime,  and  clay,  and  sand,  on  which  are 
diluvial  deposits ;  when  we  come  to  the  comparatively 
recent  period  of  the  oldest  satisfactory  traces  of  man 
on  the  earth,  and  the  opening  of  human  history.  All 
this  is  naturally  consequential  upon  the  rolling  fire- 
mist  sent  off  by  the  solar  revolving  forces,  and  left  to 
ensphere  itself,  and  cool  down,  and  condense  a  crust 


272  KNOWLEDGE  OP  CREATION. 

upon  the  shu1>in  fires  beneath.  The  silicious  mass  of 
granite,  and  gneiss,  and  mica  schist  takes  its  ordered 
position,  and  thereby  is  in  preparation  for  collecting 
vapors,  and  an  atmosphere,  and  condensed  water ;  and 
then  is  introduced  the  life-power,  building  up  its 
organisms  of  plants  and  animals  through  their  suc- 
cessive and  rising  species. 

But  still  below  all  this,  chemical  examination  carries 
our  knowledge  deeper,  and  yet  perfectly  in  accordance 
with,  and  confirmatory  of,  our  speculative 'knowledge, 
from  revolving  forces.  The  granites  and  porphyrites 
which  underlie  the  stratified  and  fossiliferous  rocks 
are  largely  composed  of  silica,  and  are  thence  termed 
silicious  rocks,  and  have  a  specific  gravity  of  2.4. 
Another  class  of  rocks,  as  the  trap  and  basalt,  have 
much  less  silica,  and  more  lime  and  iron,  and  whose 
specific  gravity  is  2.72  —  a  ratio  to  the  other  greater 
than  that  between  water  and  oil,  and  which  have  been 
forced  through  and  lie  in  position  upon  the  older 
formed  silicious  and  sedimentary  strata.  The  silicious 
cooled  first,  and  then  the  other  termed  basic  rocks,  as 
in  their  fluid  state  lying  lower,  have  been  since  pressed 
through  the  fractures,  and  cooled  upon  the  surfaces 
and  in  the  crevices  of  the  lighter  and  originally  supe- 
rior material.  This  latter  kind  of  basic  rock  is  very 
sparsely  found  in  positions  upon  the  silicious  and 
primitive  rocks,  but  appears  in  increased  frequency 
among  the  fossiliferous  rocks  of  the  palaeozoic  era, 
and  is  the  product  mainly  of  all  modern  volcanoes, 
while  the  silicious  rocks  were  more  common  from  old 


GEOLOGICAL  FORMATIONS.  273 

subterranean  eruptions^  but  are  now  very  rarely 
found  among  modern  volcanic  lavas.  This  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  the  granitic  matter  has  become 
fixed,  and  tbat  present  volcanic  eruptions  throw  out 
the  heavier  matter  still  melted  in  the  lower  posi- 
tions. The  whole  mass  of  the  earth  is  5.5  of  specific 
gravity,  and  as  so  much  of  water  and  silicious  rock  that 
is  lighter  occupies  the  superficial  portion,  the  interior 
must  be  mainly  of  the  heavier  bases  and  metals  ran- 
ging from  6.0  and  upwards ;  and  thus  is  evinced  that 
the  heavy  metals,  as  arsenic,  antimony,  copper,  and 
gold,  however  located  in  the  rocky  veins  or  mines, 
were  originally  quite  below  all  granitic  matter,  and 
may  most  probably  have  been  sublimed  from  the 
interior  as  chemical  salts. 

So  manifestly  with  our  earth.  A  solid  crust  cooled 
first,  which  had  its  fractures,  disintegrations,  and 
decompositions  ;  then  arose  vapors,  waters,  and  an 
atmosphere ;  then  the  detritus  of  primitive  rock 
would  be  deposited  in  successive  layers ;  organized 
bodies  appeared,  and  as  life  departed  they  took  their 
fossil  state  amid  the  depositions ;  and  frequent  up- 
heavals, and  successive  submersions,  and  occasional 
eruptions  have  given  to  the  earth's  superficial  portion 
just  what  the  geologist  now  witnesses.  And  so  far  as 
observation  reaches,  we  have  sphericity  and  equa- 
torial protuberance  in  other  planets,  an  atmosphere 
with  its  twilight  in  Mercury  and  Venus,  and  not  only 
air,  but  clouds  and  polar  snows,  in  Mars,  and  a  dense 
and  little  elevated  atmosphere  in  Jupiter,  and  bare 
18 


274  KNOWLEDGE   OP   CREATION. 

mountains  with  their  shadows  and  volcanic  craters 
in  the  Moon.  The  revolving  forces  have  determined 
these  geological  phenomena. 

8.  From  Facts  found  in  the  Universal  Stellar 
Distribution,  we  determine  our  Terrestrial  Rel- 
ative Position.  —  The  general  configuration  which 
the  completed  speculation  assigns  to  the  material 
Universe  is  a  broad,  spherical  Annulus  of  distinct 
stars,  as  the  central  suns  of  separate  systems,  over- 
arching on  all  sides  except  at  the  polar  extremities,  an 
inner  sphere  of  pure  ether,  which  is  composed  of 
perfectly  elastic  diremptive  Atoms,  all  revolving  on 
one  fixed  point  at  the  creating  source  from  which  all 
originated.  The  stellar  worlds  fill  the  place  of  a 
spherical  Annulus,  and  not  a  complete  globe,  both 
because  the  mass  of  material  atoms,  which  have  been 
distributed  in  them,  was  open  at  the  polar  region 
from  their  reciprocal  magnetic  repulsions,  and  be- 
cause the  revolving  force  which  distributed  them 
could  detach  them  from  the  mass  at  its  surface  only 
as  it  gained  an  augmentation  of  impetus  on  its  ap- 
proach towards  the  equatorial  plane.  All  along  the 
universal  Axis  there  is  a  vacuum  of  stellar  worlds, 
thinly  distributed  some  way  back  from  the  poles,  and 
thickly  studded  through  the  equatorial  region.  At 
the  equatorial  mid-plane,  the  unequal  accumulations 
of  the  original  mass  gave  an  excess  of  impetus  from 
side  to  side  which  threw  off  the  stars  obliquely,  this 
side  and  that,  and  so  in  the  mid-plane  the  stars  are 


RELATIVE  POSITION  OP   OUR  SYSTEM.  275 

sparse  and  unequally  arranged,  but  greatly  though 
irregularly  accumulated  in  ranks  each  side  the  mid- 
plane.  Clusters  were  occasionally  sent  off  that  fill 
patches  in  the  heavens,  and  nebulous  portions  floated 
away  at  different  places,  presenting  different  forms 
as  they  stand  in  their  respective  lines  of  vision.  The 
universe  may  be  as  large,  and  its  suns  as  distant  from 
each  other,  as  the  Maker  wills,  but  it  is  finite  in  space 
and  time ;  it  had  its  origin,  and  perpetually  has  a 
balancing  centre  and  a  balanced  periphery.  The 
central  ether  presses  out,  and  the  gravitating  matter 
presses  in,  and  though  the  ethereal  atoms  diffuse 
themselves  everywhere  through  the  stellar  spaces, 
yet  is  the  ether  so  balanced  by  the  gravitating  mat- 
ter, that  the  latter  does  not  permit  the  former  to  go 
off  and  exhaust  itself  in  the  matterless  void,  nor  does 
the  former  permit  the  latter  to  aggregate  within  the 
central  ethereal  sphere,  though  the  material  annulus 
gravitates  towards  the  ethereal  centre,  in  all  its  parts, 
as  if  the  matter  itself  reached  and  filled  the  whole  in- 
terior sphere. 

This  equatorial  belt  of  stars,  standing  in  two  irreg- 
ular ranks  on  each  side  the  equatorial  plane,  may  be 
known  as  the  Galaxy.  A  line  through  its  centre,  per- 
pendicular to  the  plane  of  the  belt,  may  be  known  as 
the  galactic  Axis;  and  the  extremities  of  the  axis 
may  be  known  as  the  galactic  Poles.  Standing  at 
the  centre  of  the  tJniverse,  the  galaxy  would  be  a 
great  circle  equally  dividing  the  heavens ;  and  the 
galactic  poles  would  be  in  opposite  regions  of  the 


276  KNOWLEDGE  OF  CREATION. 

heavens,  where  there  were,  in  both,  the  entire  ab- 
sence of  stars ;  and  from  a  few  degrees  back  of  both 
poles,  the  stars  would  thinly  appear  and  increase  in 
density  greatly  and  continually  up  to  the  equatorial 
belt.  But  such  central  vision  is  for  no  material  or- 
gan, and  the  only  stand-point  for  sensible  observation 
is  on  some  world  among  the  material  systems.  The 
starry  heavens  must  have  their  peculiar  phase  from 
each  separate  world,  and  from  distant  worlds  their 
particular  phases  must  greatly  differ  from  each 
otlier;  and  taking  the  universe  as  we  have  specu- 
latively contemplated  it,  the  astronomical  phenomena 
to  our  vision  must  determine  for  us  our  terrestial 
stand-point,  and  fix  the  position  of  our  solar  system 
relatively  to  the  other  Suns  of  the  universe. 

Among  these  phenomena,  a  galactic  fact  first  ap- 
plicable for  this  purpose  is,  that  the  galaxy  to  us  is 
not  exactly  a  great  celestial  circle,  but  it  divides 
the  heavens  unequally,  about  proportional  as  eight 
to  nine.  Our  point  of  observation,  then,  must  be  out 
from  the  centre,  and  within  the  larger  portion,  so  far 
as  to  foreshorten  the  galactic  circle  in  the  ratio  of 
one  out  of  nine. 

A  second  fact  is,  the  gauges  made  of  the  stars,  in 
equal  Zones  each  side  the  circle,  increase  in  about 
equal  ratios  up  towards  the  circle,  but  in  each  gauge 
invariably  the  number  is  some  larger  on  one  side 
than  on  the  other.  Our  system  is,  thus,  out  of  the 
galactic  equatorial  plane,  and  within  that  area  where 
the  stars  in  the  gauges  are  the  smaller  number. 


RELATIVE  POSITION  OP  OUR  SYSTEM.  277 

A  third  fact  is,  that  stars  of  different  magnitudes 
increase  in  number  in  the  gauges  very  dispropor- 
tionately. Stars  to  the  eighth  magnitude  make  no 
increase  as  the  gauges  rise  towards  the  circle ;  stars 
of  the  ninth  and  tenth  magnitudes  increase  in  num- 
ber only  from  about  30°  each  way  out  of  the  circle ; 
stars  of  the  eleventh  magnitude  increase  from  near 
the  galactic  poles;  and  from  the  twelfth  magnitude 
and  more,  the  increase  appears  as  if  quite  from  the 
poles.  These  disproportioned  numbers  in  the  stars 
of  different  magnitudes  demand  for  our  system  a 
place  above  the  pure  ethereal  inner  sphere,  and  so 
far  within  the  material  stellar  envelope,  that  stars 
to  the  eighth  magnitude  may  stand  between  that 
position  and  the  pure  ether  towards  the  centre,  and 
that  no  stars  stand  there  beyond  that  magnitude. 
Of  course,  at  a  longer  radius  from  our  position,  stars 
of  the  ninth  and  tenth  magnitudes  will  appear  in  the 
lower  edges  of  the  stellar  envelope  towards  each  ga- 
lactic pole,  and  begin  from  that  degree  below  the 
circle  to  increase  towards  the  circle ;  the  eleventh 
magnitude  will  appear  at  a  radius  reaching  near  the 
pole,  and  increase  upwards  from  it ;  the  twelfth  and 
higher  magnitudes  will  stand  between  the  spectator 
and  the  poles,  the  higher  the  further  on  in  the  polar 
direction,  and  all  increasing  at  once  as  the  gauge 
rises  towards  the  galactic  circle.  Our  solar  system 
must  be  so  far  imbedded  in  the  stellar  annulus,  that 
stars  to  the  eighth  magnitude  may  stand  all  about  it, 


278  KNOWLEDGE   OP   CREATION. 

but  not  those  of  the  ninth  and  tenth  magnitude,  be- 
tween it  and  the  grand  centre. 

A  fourth  fact  is,  that  portions  of  the  galaxy  have 
never  been  penetrated  through  to  open  space  beyond, 
by  the  highest  magnifying  glasses.  It  was  a  con- 
jecture which  Sir  William  Herschel  once  expressed 
in  his  early  astronomical  w^ritings,  that  our  system 
lay  imbedded  in  the  milky-way,  and  that  this  was 
but  one  among  the  many  nebulae,  others  of  which 
might  fill  as  large  a  space  as  the  galaxy  itself.  This 
notion  is  still  indulged  solely  from  HerschePs  ex- 
pressed conjecture.  But  later  in  HerschePs  obser- 
vations, he  came  to  find  that  the  most  powerful  tele- 
scopes could  not  reach  to  the  extent  of  the  furthest 
stars  of  the  milky  way,  and  thus  that  no  nebula  was 
provable  to  be  further  from  us  than  some  portion 
of  the  galaxy,  and  therefore  the  conjecture  that  the 
galaxy  was  itself  one  of  the  nebulae  would  be  absurd. 
Says  Humboldt,  Cosmos,  Vol.  HI.  p.  149,  "William 
Herschel,  in  his  last  works,  expressed  himself  strong- 
ly in  favor  of  the  assumption  of  an  annulus  of  stars ; 
a  view  which  he  had  contested  in  the  talented  trea- 
tise he  had  composed  in  1784.  The  most  recent 
observations  have  favored  the  hypothesis  of  a  sys- 
tem of  separate  concentric  rings.  The  thickness  of 
these  rings  seems  very  unequal;  and  the  different 
strata,  whose  combined  stronger  or  fainter  light  we 
receive,  are  undoubtedly  situated  at  very  different 
altitudes." 

A  fifth  fact  is,  that  the  Galactic  Circle  is  inclined 


RELATIVE   POSITION   OF   OUR  SYSTEM.  279 

about  40°  to  the  ecliptic,  and  its  plane  inclines  about 
63°  to  that  of  the  celestial  equator,  intersecting  this 
last  on  each  side  of  the  centre  at  about  10°  from  the 
equinoctial  points ;  and  thus  determines  the  varied 
positions  and  directions  of  our  terrestrial  abode  in 
the  system,  and  the  heavenly  objects  seen  from  it. 
The  plane  of  the  terrestrial  equator  is  23i-°  inclined 
to  the  ecliptic ;  and  thus  the  earth's  axis  is  QQ^'^  in- 
clined to  the  ecliptic ;  and  which  puts  the  earth's 
north  pole  nearly  in  the  direction  of  the  north  star 
among  the  celestial  constellations,  and  the  south 
terrestrial  pole  in  the  direction  of  the  constellation 
Octans.  The  north  galactic  pole,  as  perpendicular 
to  the  plane  of  the  galactic  circle,  will  be  from  us 
nearly  in  the  direction  of  the  constellation  Coma 
Berenices,  and  the  southern  galactic  pole  between 
the  tail  of  Cetus  and  Apparatus  Sculptoris. 

A  sixth  application  of  facts  relates  to  the  position 
and  distance  of  nebular  and  stellar  clusters.  The 
largest  glasses  pierce  the  heavens  to  more  than  two 
thousand  times  the  distance  of  stars  of.  the  first  mag- 
nitude ;  and  from  which,  as  estimated  by  experiment 
of  the  sun's  rays,  light  would  be  more  than  twelve 
thousand  years  in  making  its  passage.  In  the  ga- 
lactic circle,  at  some  portions,  stars  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude stand  in  front  of  the  deeper  brightness,  and 
while  in  places  we  look  through  to  dark,  open  space 
beyond,  in  others  the  background  is  so  completely 
studded  with  stars  as  to  be  wholly  unbroken  in  its 
brightness.     Nebulae  are  none,  or  almost  so,  in  the 


280  KNOWLEDGE   OF  CREATION. 

galaxy ;  but  clusters  of  stars  and  nebulse  are  numer- 
ous at  distances  from  it.  The  place  of  greatest  num- 
ber is  a  region  above  the  north  galactic  pole,  and 
some  remarkable  ones  are  about  the  south  galactic 
pole ;  but  the  most  important  fact  for  present  use  is 
their  resolvability  relatively  to  their  positions  in  the 
heavens.  Those  which  are  irresolvable  are  in  direc- 
tions admitting  of  the  largest  distance,  while  in  direc- 
tions admitting  only  of  least  extreme  distance  there 
are  none  irresolvable.  Taking  the  relative  position 
above  ascertained  for  our  System  in  the  great  Uni- 
versal sphere,  it  is  easy  to  determine  the  direction 
and  bearing,  through  the  constellations  on  the  celes- 
tial sphere  in  which  the  clusters  and  nebulse  are 
found,  towards  the  points  from  which  the  longest 
radii  may  be  drawn.  The  nearest  part  of  the  periph- 
ery of  the  universal  sphere  to  our  system  must 
be  the  region  about  the  north  galactic  pole,  and  a 
little  back  from  this  pole  are  the  numerous  clusters 
found  in  the  constellations  Leo  Major,  Coma  Bereni- 
ces, and  the  head  and  wings  of  Yirgo,  and  all  resol- 
vable by  large  telescopes.  At  a  longer  radius  to 
the  furthest  stars  from  our  system,  in  the  sword- 
handle  of  Orion,  is  the  long  noticed  and  remarkable 
nebula,  which,  with  Lord  Ross's  great  telescope,  was 
barely  resolved,  the  stars  being  still  too  close  to  be 
counted ;  and  about  an  equal  distance  from  the  outer 
universal  surface  is  another  nebula  in  the  girdle  of 
Andromeda,  and  which  is  resolved  with  the  like  diffi- 
culty.    There  are  ako  the  Magellanic  clouds,  known 


RELATIVE  POSITION  OF   OUR  SYSTEM.  281 

as  Nubecula  Major  and  Minor,  standing  about  12° 
apart,  and  from  26°  to  30°  back  from  the  south  celes- 
tial pole,  thus  admitting  of  their  being  from  us  at 
nearly  the  greatest  possible  distance,  and  which 
are  among  the  most  remarkable  phenomena  of  the 
heavens.  They  have  their  distinct  clusters  and  neb- 
ulaB  of  various  magnitudes,  but  the  base  of  all  is 
a  brightness  hitherto  utterly  unresolved.  There 
should  be  also  added  the  large  nebula  in  the  con- 
stellation Argo,  admitting  from  direction  of  being 
also  at  greatest  possible  distance,  and  which  shows 
no  tendency  to  resolution  through  the  most  power- 
ful glasses.  We  cannot  say  of  these  unresolved 
nebulae  that  they  are  the  furthest  possible  from 
us ;  it  is  much  that  they  stand  in  direction,  from  the 
position  above  attained  for  our  system,  in  which  the 
longest  lines  may  be  drawn  to  the  periphery  of  the 
universal  sphere. 

A  seventh,  and  now  last  noticed  galactic  fact,  is  the 
peculiar  bifurcation  of  the  galactic  circle.  This  cir- 
cle is  narrowest,  and  yet  brightest,  when  viewed  near 
the  constellation  of  the  Southern  Cross  and  the  hind 
feet  of  Centaurus,  being  about  3°  in  breadth.  In  its 
broadest  undivided  portions,  it  reaches  to  15°.  In 
some  parts  the  circle  seems  nearly  broken ;  but  the 
more  notable  peculiarity  is  a  remarkable  separation, 
or  forking  into  two  distinct  belts,  which  again  come 
together.  Starting  in  the  southern  terrestrial  hemi- 
sphere, the  bifurcation  begins  near  the  constellation 
Circinus  and  the  fore  feet  of  Centaurus.     The  more 


282  KNOWLEDGE   OP   CREATION. 

southerly  fork  passes  unbroken  through  the  constel- 
lations Aquila,  Sagitta,  Vulpecula,  and  more  irregu- 
larly, on  to  Cj^gnus.  The  northerly  fork  loses  itself 
near  the  foot  of  Serpentarius,  but  appears  again 
further  on,  and  joins  the  southerly  fork  about  130° 
from  their  separation.  The  two  forks  nowhere  but 
slightly  diverge  from  a  mid-line,  but  in  their  widest 
portion  they  fill  about  22°  from  the  outsides.  The 
certainty  of  a  separation  of  the  galaxy  throughout 
cannot  be  affirmed,  as  with  the  planets  in  our  system 
is  the  fact,  of  from  30'  to  3°  30'  from  a  mid-line  between 
Neptune  and  Uranus ;  but  if  there  is,  it  could  not  be 
observed  from  our  eccentric  position  to  a  greater  dis- 
tance than  is  the  galactic  bifurcation.  The  divided 
ranks  opening  over  us  would  appear  to  join  both  ways 
considerably  short  of  half  their  complete  circle.  At 
least,  the  irregularities,  cessations,  and  separations  in 
the  galactic  circle  indicate  the  stars  about  the  mid- 
plane  to  have  had  oblique  projections,  from  unequal 
accumulations  about  a  common  revolving  sphere,  and 
a  probability  that  the  same  continues  through  the 
equatorial  plane. 

So,  our  solar  system  has  its  determinable  place 
among  the  stars,  and  the  universe  of  stars  has  its 
fixed  centre  and  definite  periphery.  Every  world  has 
its  exact  balance  and  harmonious  movement.  The 
whole  is  of  such  extent  that  the  rapidity  of  light 
traverses  the  broader  interstellar  spaces  only  after 
a  flight  of  many  thousand  years ;  yet  is  the  ethereal 
light-medium   everywhere  difi'used,  and  the   light-vi- 


RELATIVE  POSITION   OF  OUR  SYSTEM.  283 

brations,  from  all  surrounding  solar  systems,  come 
down  through  the  pure  ether  upon  the  centre,  in 
unrefracted  clearness.  Here  is  the  source  of  cre- 
ative Power  and  eternal  Wisdom,  hiding  itself  in  light 
to  which  no  mortal  eye  approaches.  Not  planets 
around  suns,  and  suns  and  systems  around  some 
greater  orb,  and  the  highest  with  no  ultimate  sup- 
port; but  an  independent  Spiritual  source  originat- 
ing all,  and  sending  out  all,  and  holding  all  in  equi- 
poise, through  this  one  fixed  centre.  Matter  can 
never  give  a  first  of  either  motion  or  rest,  nor  either 
one  from  the  other,  and  without  the  spiritual  the  ma- 
terial is  wholly  inexplicable.  A  sentimenlal  fancy 
may  please  itself  a  while  in  fleeing  from  sun  to  sun 
to  get  hold  on  something  stable  ;  but  a  necessity 
comes  at  length  to  all  to  stop  and  rest;  and  mate- 
rialism has  no  resting-place.  It  cannot  find  whence 
it  comes  nor  whither  it  goes ;  and  only  as  we  hold 
in  reason  can  we  know  an  origin,  a  progress,  or  a 
consummation. 


284  KNOWLEDGE  OP  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  III. 

LIFE. 

1.  Life  distinguished  from  Force,  in  that  it  de- 
termines HIGHER  Unities.  —  Distingnishable  unities 
mark  distinctive  kinds  of  Being,  and  in  nothing  can 
we  note  the  distinction  between  Force  and  Life, 
and  in  Life  the  distinctions  between  Organizing 
Instinct,  Sense-consciousness,  and  Spiritual  Person- 
ality, so  clearly  and  comprehensively  as  in  the 
respective  unities  which  each  is  severally  compe- 
tent to  determine. 

The  phenomena  gained  in  experience  can  have 
no  intrinsic  unity.  They  are  singles  which  may  be 
outwardly  conjoined,  but  not  inherently  connected. 
The  handful  of  sand  or  the  bundle  of  rods  is  still 
so  many  singles ;  and  the  chain  is  but  so  many  single 
links,  and  as  destitute  of  essential  unity  when  the 
links  shut  within,  as  if  they  w,ere  joined  outside  of 
each  other.  The  Building  is  so  many  pieces,  still 
as  single  when  framed  and  mortised  as  when  lying 
loose  from  each  other.  They  may  be  externally 
joined,  never  essentially  united.  Yet  of  such  out- 
side joining  of  singles  there  is  a  made-up  whole ; 
and  to  distinguish  the  conjoined  from  the  separate 


LIFE  DISTTKCT  FROM  FORCE.  285 

singularity,  it  may  be  allowabJe  to  speak  of  it  as  a 
factitious  unity. 

Phenomenal  qualities  frequently  standing  together, 
and  events  frequently  occurring  in  the  same  order 
of  succession,  are  universally  spoken  of  as  having 
some  necessary  connection,  and  the  notion  of  sub- 
stance is  put  as  the  connective  of  the  qualities, 
and  the  notion  of  cause  as  connective  of  the  events, 
and  so  nature  is  bound  together  in  what  is  assumed 
to  be  laws  of  experience ;  but  when  we  discard 
the  insight  of  reason,  and  refer  such  connection  to 
the  judgment  of  the  logical  understanding,  we  can 
find  nothing  to  justify  our  use  of  the  notions  of  sub- 
stance and  cause,  and  are  forced  to  a  scepticism  of 
all  necessary  connection,  and  admit  that  we  know 
only  single  qualities  grouped  together,  and  single 
events  as  sequents  to  each  other.  The  laws  of 
connection  are  mere  facts  of  occurrence,  and  we 
have  no  other  warrant  for  any  inherent  unity,  save 
that  in  our  experience  they  have  in  fact  so  stood 
together  in  place,  and  so  followed  each  other  in 
period.  Yet  because  an  unrecognized  rationality 
urges  the  assumption  of  such  connections,  as  if 
there  were  somehow  a  unity,  we  may  term  it  a 
quasi-unity . 

When,  however,  the  recognition  of  the  distinctive 
reason-intelligence  enables  us  to  contemplate  forces 
in  their  essential  constitution  and  working,  ive  know 
how  singles  come  to  lose  their  singularity,  and  stand 
in  veritable  unity,  in  which   the  component  singles 


286  KNOWLEDGE  OF  CREATION. 

neutralize  themselves  in  a  third  single  unlike  to 
either  constituent.  So  the  insight  of  reason  con- 
templates two  spiritual  impulses,  working  in  antag- 
onism at  a  common  limit,  and  becoming  united  action 
and  reaction,  as  losing  their  distinctive  energies  in  a 
third  thing  which  is  itself  single,  and  therein  knows 
essentially  the  existence  of  Force.  So,  again,  we  con- 
template the  single  forces,  shutting  themselves  together 
at  the  centre  by  their  gravitating  and  bi-polar  ener- 
gies, as  losing  their  singularities  in  a  third  single, 
which  we  then  essentiaUy  know  as  an  independent 
Atom.  And  so,  again,  single  material  and  ethereal 
atoms  are  contemplated,  as  shutting  themselves  in 
cohesion  by  the  implications  of  their  respective  im- 
pulses and  expulses,  and  in  this  lose  their  distinctive 
atomic  singularities,  and  become  another  single  as 
a  primitive  molecule,  and  which  henceforth  we  know 
as  simple  Substance.  So  far  as  we  may  get  insight 
of  the  neutralizing  working  of  the  component  atoms, 
we  know  the  essence  of  the  simple  substance,  the 
distinct  varieties  of  which  present  experience  num- 
bers sixty-six. 

Finally,  two  simple  substances  in  aflSnity  come  in 
chemical  combination,  completely  neutralizing  their 
old  forces,  and  working  in  unison  as  a  single  new 
force,  and  thus  make  a  7iew  single  substance  unlike 
either  ingredient.  So  oxygen  and  hydrogen  in  due 
proportions  combine  as  water,  in  which  the  compo- 
nent singles  are  lost,  and  the  new  thing  is  as  truly 
a  single   as  was   either  the    oxygen   or  hydrogen. 


LIFE  DISTINCT  FROM  FORCE.  287 

Natui^e's  forces  are  seen  by  reason  to  be  continually 
converting  themselves  into  new  substances  while  can- 
celling the  old,  and  yet  the  old  is  not  annihilated,  for 
the  new  may  be  again  resolv^ed  to  the  old.  The  neu- 
tralized action  and  reaction  of  the  two  has  become 
wholly  another  action  in  the  third,  manifesting  itself 
in  experience  in  new  qualities,  and  inducing  other 
effects. 

In  all  the  above  cases  the  old  elements  negate  them- 
selves, and  appear  as  wholly  a  new  single  thing;  and 
such  essential  unity  of  component  singles  into  a  new 
single  is  known  as  negative  unity  —  not  as  if  opposed  to 
positive  unity,  but  the  posited  unit  has  been  consti- 
tuted by  the  negation  of  the  elementary  units.  The 
elementary  units  in  their  aflSnities  are  properly  com- 
plementary each  to  each,  and  when  apart  may,  in  a 
sense,  be  said  mutually  to  need  each  the  other ;  they 
cannot  fill  out  their  combined  action  apart  one  from 
the  other;  but  neither  has  any  efficiency  to  supply 
the  other.  Tlie  need  is  a  lack,  and  wholly  empty  and 
helpless  in  affording  to  itself  the  complementary  relief 
So  an  acid  may  be  said  to  need  its  alkaline  base,  but 
wholly  outside  of  itself  must  come  the  efficiency  that 
supplies  the  base  and  complements  itself  thereby  in 
the  neutral  salt.  The  elements,  brought  together 
within  the  spheres  of  their  several  energies,  complete 
themselves  by  cancelling  their  old  energies  in  essen- 
tially another  kind  of  substantial  force.  We  thus 
comprehend  the  very  essence  of  a  negative  unity. 
The  energies  of  complemental  forces  neutralize  them- 


288  KNOWI.EDGE  OF  CREATION. 

selves  and  become  another  kind  of  force^  bnt  the  unity 
is  effected  only  within  the  sphere  of  the  elementary 
action,  and  wlsen  the  new  unit  is  constituted,  it  has 
no  need  to  go 'out  of  itself  in  complement  with  any 
other.  The  negative  unity  is  henceforth  a  static  in 
its  place,  and  does  nothing  to  work  new  combinations 
and  extend  unities  beyond  its  place.  Let  the  combi- 
nations in  negative  unity  fill  place  to  any  extent,  yet 
each  px)int  has  its  own  unity  in  its  own  neutralized 
energies.  Every  paii;  of  the  salt  has  its  own  saltness, 
and  no  unit  goes  out  of  itself  in  communication  with 
another.  Every  unit  perpetuates  its  cancelling  \vith- 
in  itself,  but  is  wholly  dead  to  all  participation  in  the 
cancelling  of  units  beyond  itself. 

If,  however,  we  should  speculatively  contemplate 
the  deficient  element  to  have  some  way  within  itself  a 
feding  of  its  deficiency,  and  which  thereby  attains  to 
a  craving  want  instead  of  a  bare  lack,  the  c?6ficiency 
will  from  its  self-feeling  have  become  an  e/'ficiency, 
and  go  out  in  longing  to  find  its  complement,  and 
consummate  its  unity  in  so  cancelling  the  two  that 
they  become  another  one.  Once  endowed  with  this 
craving  want,  the  element  will  no  longer  be  held  in 
its  inertia,  but  will  have  an  intrinsic  prompting  to  go 
over  of  its  own  accord  to  its  complement  and  satisfy 
its  longing.  A  simple  want,  however,  prompts  only 
to  an  immediate  outgoing,  with  no  inducement  for  a 
returning ;  spontaneously  tending  to  its  end,  with  no 
reflex  action  back  upon  itself;  it  can,  therefore,  never 
come  to  any  sejf-recognition.     It  cannot  be  conscious 


LIFE  DISTINCT  FROM  FOR 

of  the  imptilsive  prompting  urging  on,  nornSV5~  any 
remembrance  of  the  activity  when  past,  but  is  solely 
a  thrusting  in  to  its  direct  issue  ;  and  this  is  literally 
an  instinct.  An  appetite  involves*  a  recognition  of 
the  fitness  of  the  object  to  the  want;  and  a  desire 
involves  a  remembrance  of  previous  gratification;  but 
an  instinct  thrusts  through  to  its  end  in  pure  uncon- 
scious spontaneity.  Tlie  element  with  the  want,  of 
its  own  accord,  communicates  with  its  complemental 
element,  and  secures  the  negative  unity  ;  but  the  want 
still  urges  on  to  fuilher  communion,  and  goes  over 
into  other  complemental  combinations,  thereby  putting 
negative  unities  themselves  in  unity.  This  sponta- 
neous unitirig  of  negative  unities  themselves  is  wholly 
the  product  of  the  want;  and  could  never  be  produced 
by  the  complemental  elements  alone,  which  of  them- 
selves must  ever  rest  in  their  neutralization,  with  no 
going  beyond  to  a  further  union.  And  now,  in  this 
spontaneous  uniting  of  negative  unities,  we  have  the 
higher  unity  which  has  passed  beyond  ainhe  combi- 
nations of  dead  mechanical  forces,  and  stands  within 
the  sphere  of  living  agencies.  We  have  contemplated 
it  in  its  simplest  state,  and  have  it  in  speculation  as 
pure  unconscious  instinct,  but  still  a  spontaneous 
agency  competent  to  multiply  negative  unities  all 
about  the  first  unity,  and  to  diflfuse  itself  all  through 
the  body  of  unities  which  it  thus  holds  together  in 
complete  individuality.  No  one  unit  of  all  the  indi- 
vidualized unities  can  be  taken  away  without  sun- 
dering the  diffused  bond  which  holds  all  in  common. 
19 


290  KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 

Thus  the  life-power  determines  the  distinctive  unity 
of  individuality. 

2.  The  Contemplation  op  an  Agency  competent  to 
WORK  Individualities.  —  In  contemplating  cohesion, 
we  saw  the  necessity  that  ethereal  atoms  should  be  in- 
terposed amid  material  atoms.  Material  impulses  hold 
together  as  attraction,  but  cannot  implicate  them- 
selves in  fixed  connection,  since  those  of  each  atom 
work  towards  its  own  centre,  and  not  to  act  and  react 
with  the  impulses  of  other  atoms.  But  the  diremp- 
tive  action  of  ethereal  atoms  works  directly  in  impli- 
cation with  the  impulses  of  material  atoms,  and  when 
the  ethereal  stands  between  material  atoms  the  action 
of  the  expulses  and  impulses  must  interpenetrate  in 
mutual  cohesion.  And  still  further,  when  matter  is 
in  cohesion,  it  is  the  vibratory  agitation  of  the  inter- 
posed ethereal  forces  which  breaks  up  the  cohesion, 
and  puts  solid  matter  in  solution.  As  media  for  com- 
bination, and  also  for  dissolution  that  there  may  be 
recombinations,  the  interposition  of  ethereal  forces  is 
indispensable ;  and  where  their  agency  can  be  con- 
trolled and  applied  for  this  purpose,  the  ethereal  me- 
dium is  a  sufficient  interposition.  A  spontaneous  user 
of  diremptive  forces  is  a  competent  agent  to  assimi- 
late complemental  elements,  to  combine  them  in  nega- 
tive unities,  and  to  go  out  of  the  effected  unity,  in 
communication  with  other  complemental  elements, 
and  add  their  unity  to  former  combinations. 

The  ethereal  expulses  must  thus  become  the  instru- 


LIVING   INDIVIDUALITIES.  291 

ment  for  effectiag  this  higher  unity  of  negative  uni- 
ties, and  bringing  them  into  individuality.  The  ex- 
pulses  are  themselves  spiritual  activities,  but  we  now 
contemplate  them  as  receiving  a  more  sublimated 
spiritual  agency  than  that  of  their  original  energy. 
The  instinctive  want  to  combine  complemental  ele- 
ments is  now  contemplated  as  infused  into  the  ex- 
pulses  of  the  ethereal  atom,  and  it  becomes  instinct  with 
the  spontaneous  prompting  to  put  itself  in  composi- 
tion with  congenial  material  elements,  and  work  their 
combination,  and  to  go  over  from  the  combination 
already  brought  in  negative  unity^  to  neutralize  fur- 
ther complemental  elements,  and  thereby  build  up  an 
extended  body  of  unities  which  shall  be  held  in  indi- 
viduality by  its  own  thorough  diffusion  and  connec- 
tion with  every  part.  The  superinduction  of  the 
instinctive  want  upon  the  diremptive  expulse  is  also 
a  reciprocal  intussusception  of  their  respective  ener- 
gies. The  expulsive  energy  takes  in  the  want,  and 
the  spontaneous  want  takes  the  mechanical  energy, 
and  a  new  existence  is  begun  hitherto  unknown 
among  mechanical  forces.  The  craving  want  is  utter- 
ly a  creation,  and  its  superinduction  upon  an  already 
created  existence  puts  a  new  being  into  nature  as 
really  from  the  Creator's  act,  as  in  the  primal  origina- 
tion of  force  itself.  The  atoms,  on  whose  expulses 
this  instinctive  want  is  superinduced,  now  stand  out 
amid  the  ethereal  and  material  atoms  distinct  in  es- 
sence from  all  else  the  univjerse  contains.  Such  atom 
has  pure  spontaneity,  forever  separating  it  from  all 


292  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

the  mere  push  and  pull  ot*  mechanical  movement. 
Herein  is  the  real  Proto-Bion,  and  the  Light  of  the 
world  becomes  literally  Life  in  the  world.  No  ethe- 
real atom  can  wake  within  itself  such  instinctive 
prompting,  nor  can  it  be  an  impartation  from  any  phys- 
ical forces,  antagonist,  diremptive,  or  revolving;  it 
overrules  and  uses  physical  force,  and  can  have  exist- 
ence only  from  the  Absolute  Source  of  all  origination. 

Such  superinduction  of  the  instinctive  want  upon 
ethereal  force  by  the  absolute  Creator  evinces,  in  the 
reason  of  the  case  itself,  that  it  must  have  been  for 
the  attainment  of  ends  beyond  what  could  have  been 
secured  by  the  latter  alone.  If  mechanical  forces 
cauld  have  answered  the  purposes  of  spontaneous 
instincts,  the  latter  must  have  been  brought  into  ex- 
istence for  no  reason ;  the  life-instinct  is  made  in  vain. 
It  is  not  made  from  force,  but  is  added  to  force,  that 
it  may  use  force  in  subserviency  to  its  own  end  ;  and 
in  this  only  is  the  wisdom  of  the  making  and  superin- 
ducing, that  thereby  the  expulses  may  serve  new 
purposes. 

The  expulses  of  the  ethereal  atom  are  on  this  ac- 
count put  under  the  control  of  the  life-instinct,  and  it 
is  competent  for  it  to  direct  them  for  its  own  interest 
by  changing  their  balance,  and  giving  an  excess  of 
expulse  on  one  side,  thus  inducing  and  directing 
movement,  and  thereby  modifying  and  appropriating 
to  its  own  use  both  ethereal  and  material  atoms  about 
it.  The  instinctive  want  is  not  force;  nor  is  it  com- 
petent for  it  to  give  any  new  force ;  but  it  uses  the 


LIFE  ASSIMILATION.  293 

forces  already  in  being  upon  which  it  has  been  super- 
induced. When  it  has  taken  and  used  force,  and  there- 
by exhausted  it,  the  spontaneous  want  communicates 
itself  to  other  forces,  and  assimilates  and  incorporates, 
and  then  dissolves  and  eliminates  them.  In  mechan- 
ics, the  force  controlling  other  forces  is  called  a  pow- 
er;  and  though  not  itself  force,  yet  in  its  use  of  the 
forces  it  infuses,  this  life-want  may  be  properly  termed 
life-power.  Taking  advantage  of  physical  forces,  the 
life-power  serves  its  ends  by  the  help  of  nature,  or 
uses  one  part  of  nature's  forces  to  counteract  others, 
and  convert  opposing  forces  to  its  want,  and  so  works 
its  way,  even  against  nature,  in  putting  negative  uni- 
ties together  in  an  individual  body  which  it  builds  up 
as  its  own  dwelling,  and  which  is  indivisible  except 
in  violent  dismemberment,  and  is  therefore  an  agency 
producing  strict  individualities. 

3.  The  Life-power  is  an  Assimilative  Agent. — 
The  life- want  is  a  spontaneous  longing  or  craving  for 
its  own  satisfying,  and  it  controls  the  ethereal  ener- 
gies it  has  pervaded  so  that  they  work  on  and  in 
dead  matter,  in  some  of  its  substantial  forces,  and 
render  it  complemental,  in  particular  elements,  for 
new  and  largely  extended  combinations  beyond  what 
the  mere  mechanical  action  of  forces  can  effect.  It 
separates  existing  cohesions,  dissolves  old  combina- 
tions, changes  inner  antagonisms  to  other  polarities 
and  attractions,  and  thus  induces  new  affinities,  and 
thereby  introduces  into  nature  a  vital  chemistry  pe- 


294  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

culiar  to  its  own  working,  having  new  equivalents 
constituting  new  substances.  It  thus  assimilates  new 
elements  to  its  own  ends,  and  fits  them  together  for 
constituting  its  needed  incorporations.  Not  all  the 
complemental  elements  which  mechanical  chemistry 
works  in  combination  is  used  by  the  life-power,  and 
but  four  simple  substances  are  made  by  it  to  enter 
into  complete  combination.  Carbon  and  the  three 
elementary  gases  —  oxygen,  hydrogen,  and  nitrogen 
—  it  assimilates  and  completely  incorporates,  and  these 
only.  Sometimes  in  the  ternary  combinations  of  car- 
bon, oxygen,  and  hydrogen,  and  sometimes  in  the 
quaternary  combination  when  nitrogen  is  added.  Car- 
bonic acid  is  the  union  in  chemical  proportions  of 
carbon  and  oxygen ;  water  is  the  like  union  of  hydro- 
gen and  oxygen ;  and  ammonia  the  like  union  of  nitro- 
gen and  hydrogen;  and  with  these  three  substances 
at  hand,  the  life-power  can  supply  itself  with  all  the 
simple  elements  it  ever  completely  assimilates.  If 
either  were  Avanting  in  our  world,  it  would  not  yet 
be  ready  for  the  introduction  of  the  life-instinct. 
Many  other  elements  mingle  in  with  these  when  build- 
ing up  living  bodies,  such  as  phosphor,  sulphur, 
iron,  silex,  &c. ;  but  they  are  supplementary  only,  fill- 
ing in  and  supporting  the  structure,  but  not  comple- 
mentary as  neutralized  in  the  new  product.  Ethereal 
vibration,  as  sensible  light  and  heat,  is  necessary  to 
living  assimilation  as  really  as  the  presence  of  the 
ethereal  atoms  themselves ;  and  except  in  excess,  the 
growth  and  vigor  of  the  living  body  is  as  the  meas- 


LIFE  ASSIMILATION.  295 

ure  of  light  and  heat ;  but  these  light-  and  heat-vibra- 
tions are  but  preparative  and  conditional,  and  not  the 
efficient  powers  in  the  work  of  assimilation.  And 
how  it  is,  that  the  insight  of  reason  determines  the 
life-want  to  be  the  efficient  power  in  assimilating  the 
complementary  elements,  may  be  manifested  in  put- 
ting together  the  following  facts. 

By  strongly  assisted  vision  careful  observers  fol- 
lowed up  the  phenomenal  process  of  vital  growth  to 
the  life-cell,  and  found  this  to  consist  of  a  covering 
membrane  with  an  inner  film  about  a  minute  globule 
of  viscous  fluid,  in  which  floated  lesser  particles  that 
were  colored,  yet  partially  transparent.  The  ele- 
mentary constituents  of  all  bodies,  vegetable  and 
animal,  were  chemically  in  this  cell-matter ;  and  what- 
ever the  living  body  might  be,  its  base  was  a  multi- 
plication of  such  life-cells,  with  similar  appearance  in 
all.  The  cells  were  found  to  multiply  and  enlarge 
themselves  by  various  methods,  and  the  aggregates 
of  cell-production  were  known  as  cellulose;  which 
standing  in  consistency  was  known  as  tissue;  if  only 
a  superficial  expansion  it  is  cellular  tissue,  and  if 
cylindrical  in  extension  it  is  vascular  tissue. 

A  more  protracted  and  careful  examination  found 
the  membraneous  envelope  and  the  inner  film  to  be  a 
product  of  the  inside  viscous  fluid ;  and  passing  over 
the  peculiarities  of  the  outside  tissue,  the  interest 
was  restricted  to  the  primitive  inside  matter  as  the 
essential  constituent  in  all  cell-life,  and  the  one  com- 
mon substance  out  of  which  all  forms  of  living  bodies 


296  KNOWLEDGE    OP   CREATION. 

in  plants  and  animals  are  constructed.  As  a  com- 
pound of  the  elements  known  as  combined  in  living 
structures,  and  thus  as  the  pabulum  and  nutriment 
for  organic  existences,  and  competent  to  take  on  all 
the  fabled  forms  of  Proteus,  it  was  called  ^jjro^ei/i; 
but  as  assumed  to  be  one  and  the  same  thing  in  it- 
self, and  passing  out  in  equivocal  generation  into  all 
varieties  of  organic  existence  from  its  own  plastic 
nature  and  tendency,  it  was  known  as  j^'^oi^i^lasm. 
Eminent  physicists  take  this  as  the  ultimate  that 
is  reached  in  the  domain  of  life ;  and  that  it  is  not 
needful  we  should  attempt  to  attain  a  deeper  fact  or 
apply  a  broader  law ;  but  just  as  water  is  the  prod- 
uct of  its  constituent  elements  in  favoring  condi- 
tions, and  crystals  have  their  solid  forms  and  angles 
from  the  nature  of  their  ingredients  when  the  oc- 
casion for  their  combination  is  given,  so  living  bodies 
have  .all  their  peculiarities  from  the  intrinsic  nature 
of  the  protoplastic  matter  out  of  which  they  arc  con- 
structed. Protoplasm  first  is,  and  all  forms  of  life 
spring  up  out  of  it.  Further  experience  by  equally 
eminent  observers  finds  facts  which  render  it  wholly 
unscientific  to  suppose  all  forms  of  life  to  spring  from 
one  protoplastic  substance.  Plant-formations  spring 
directly  from  the  mineral  kingdom,  and  in  them  is 
produced  the  protoplasm  which  makes  animal  life 
possible.  The  animal  organism  cannot  be  till  first 
the  plant  has  been,  and  so  the  vegetable  and  animal 
body  cannot  each  have  the  same  protoplastic  origin. 
In  the  animal  body,  each  organ  and  distinctive  prod- 


LIFE   ASSIMILATION.  297 

uct  has  its  appropriate  protoplasm,  which  cannot  be 
made  interchangeable.  The  protoplasm  of  a  muscle 
cannQt  produce  a  nerve,  nor  can  that  of  either  a 
muscle  or  a  nerve  produce  a  bone ;  nor  can  an  eye 
grow  from  the  protoplasm  of  an  ear;  nor  can  the 
protoplasm  of  an  unicellular  plant  grow  out  in  the 
body  of  another  species  of  plant ;  and  so  of  all  vegeta- 
tion. The  fruit  of  one  tree  cannot  produce  itself  into 
the  life  of  another  specifically  different  tree.  Some 
protoplasm  appropriates  as  already  living,  and  some 
can  only  be  appropriated  by  the  living  as  itself  al- 
ready dead.  Certainly,  if  all  life  comes  from  proto- 
plasm, the  protoplasm  is  not  ultimate,  for  something 
beyond  it  must  be  making  wide  modifications  of  it. 

A  later  and  more  profoundly  complete  and  satis- 
factory examination  of  the  living  process  of  assimila- 
tion and  growth  has  been  attained  by  tinging  certain 
specimens  in  a  carmine  solution.  The  mildew,  yeast, 
and  sugar  plant:  the  mucous, and  white-blood  corpuscle; 
the  simplest  life  known  in  the  yet  structureless  amoe- 
bae, and  the  forming  of  the  most  complicated  muscle 
and  nerve  organisms ;  all  may  so  be  subjected  to  di- 
rect inspection  under  the  highest  microscopic  en- 
largement. There  are  thus  made  to  appear  three 
different  forms  of  matter  concerned  in  the  assimila- 
tive process  —  the  germinal  or  forming,  the  fixed  or 
formed,  and  the  nutrient  substances.  The  nutrient 
matter  is  yet  lifeless,  the  formed  matter  appears  fixed 
in  the  vital  tissue,  and  the  germinal  matter  is  mov- 
ing through  the  constructing  and  growing  process. 


298  KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 

The  germinating  matter  has  everywhere  and  every 
way  internal  motion,  and  this  movement  manifestly 
spontaneous  and  diremptive  from  various  centres,  and 
the  central  points  moving  of  their  own  accord  any 
way  through  the  mass,  by  no  mechanical  pulsation  or 
chemical  aflSnities.  The  membraneous  tissue  enclos- 
ing a  cell,  or  standing  any  way  as  a  fixed  fibre,  is  the 
formed  product,  woven  from  the  forming  germinal 
movement,  out  of  the  assimilated  nutrient  matter 
brought  within  reach.  So  the  cell-envelopment  is 
seen  in  its  forming  process.  Sometimes  the  germinal 
matter  is  seen  protruding  itself,  and  looping  itself  by 
a  tissue  with  the  mass  left  behind  ;  and  at  other  times 
spinning  in  its  Wake  muscular  fibres,  or  nerve-fila- 
ments, and  laying  them  along  a  former  similar  con- 
struction; or  again  working  in  the  germinal  matter  at 
the  bulbous  root  of  a  hair,  and  pushing  out  from  it  the 
spicule  already  constructed.  The  carmine  tinge  does 
not  pass  over  from  the  forming  matter  into  the  formed 
structure,  and  hence  within  the  product  no  motion  ap- 
pears; but  while  in  use  by  the  life-power,  the  formed 
member  must  still  be  a  living  member,  though  por- 
tions of  it  may  be  successively  becoming  effete  and 
dry,  and  needing  elimination.  No  chemical  combina- 
tion can  make  cellulose  from  protein,  nor  put  formed 
cellulose  back  again  to  protein;  but  here  the  spon- 
taneous agency  is  in  the  germinal  matter,  moving 
and  using  it  for  an  organic  construction  wholly  after 
its  own  peculiar  arrangement.  The  nutrient  matter 
becomes  altogether  a  new  thing  in  the  formed  matter, 


LIFE   ASSIMILATION.  299 

and  often  the  same  nutrient  is  made  into  different 
tissues,  and  what  is  salutary  to  one  is  sometimes  utter- 
ly destructive  to  another.  The  living  instinct  is  here 
verily  back  of  all  protoplasm,  and  is  the  working  chem- 
ist first  making  his  own  instruments,  and  with  them 
modifying  and  combining  the  protoplasm  to  his  own 
distinctive  organic  ends,  and  then  abiding  in  the 
structure  he  makes,  and  serving  himself  of  its  con- 
veniences at  pleasure.  Not  material  force,  but  a 
spontaneous  user  of  force,  is  manifest  in  this  diver- 
sified assimilating  and  incorporating. 

The  life-power  in  its  first  and  lower  stages  barely 
assimilates  its  matter  to  its  end  in  individualizing  its 
combinations.  The  first  and  lowest  life-want  is  just 
to  multiply  negative  unities,  and  communicate  itself 
all  through  them  in  individuality,  and  then  let  the 
individuality  fall  apart  in  unicellular  productions. 
Each  cell  has  many  negative  unities,  and  all  held  in 
strict  individuality,  and  every  going  over  to  a  new 
cell  is  but  repeating  the  old  process  of  multiplication 
by  dichotomy ;  prolonging  the  old  life  by  cutting  it 
into  separate  individuals.  So  the  snow-plant  of 
Alpine  and  Arctic  regions  is  unicellular,  and  individual 
in  its  one  instinct  diff'used  all  through  the  cell,  and 
this  cell  divides  itself  into  other  cells  that  break  from 
it,  and  each  in  turn  parts  into  others;  and  so  in  a 
very  short  period  the  snow-plant  multiplies  and  covers 
an  area  of  many  acres.  So  the  brittleworts  abound 
in  ocean  and  fresh  water,  and  on  the  bare  earth. 
They  absorb  carbonic  acid  and  give  out  oxygen  in 


300  KNOWLEDGE    OF  CREATION. 

large  measures,  purifying  water  and  air  for  higher 
animal  life,  and  supporting  that  life  when  it  comes  by- 
yielding  their  own  cellulose,  in  exhaustless  amount, 
as  food  to  nourish  these  more  complicated  bodies. 
Their  single  microscopic  cells  have  neither  leaf, 
nor  bud,  nor  seed,  nor  sex,  but  live  and  multiply 
solely  from  the  original  life-want  that  was  in  the 
first,  and  communicates  itself  in  prolongation  through 
all.  The  life-instinct  is  thus  in  these  and  other 
unicellular  products  in  perpetual  activity  which  is 
barely  assimilative. 

4.  The  Assimilative  Agency  must  be  elevated  to 
AN  Organizing  Agency.  —  The  amount  of  protoplastic 
or  cellulose  sustenance  in  unicellular  bodies,  in  the 
earlier  geological  epochs,  frojn  its  rapid  multiplication 
must  soon  have  opened  the  way  for  higher  forms  of 
life.  Deleterious  gases  were  held  in  combination,  and 
salutar}^  elements  were  disengaged,  and  appropriate 
nourishment  was  prepared,  and  thus  the  need  must 
arise  from  these  meliorating  conditions,  in  the  ongoing 
of  Nature,  for  more  complicated  living  structures. 

Speculatively,  the  original  assimilative  Avant  can  no 
more  raise  itself  to  the  higher  want  requisite  to  these 
meliorated  conditions,  than  the  mere  mechanical  force 
could  have  raised  itself  to  a  living  instinct.  All 
beyond  the  assimilative  power  is  a  mere  lack ;  a 
helpless  deficiency ;  and  can  minister  nothing  to  the 
efficient  supply  which  is  to  fill  the  empty  need.  The 
same   creative   source   which   gave   the   assimilative 


LIFE   ORGANIZATION.  301 

instinct  must  now  give  this  higher  want,  which,  of  its 
own  accord,  shall  prompt  to  its  own  satisfying.  It 
cannot  be  development  from  the  mere  assimilative 
instinct,  but  must  be  a  direct  origination  of  so  much  as 
reaches  beyond  the  mere  assimilative  agency.  Specu- 
latively, it  might  be  taken  that  the  higher  life-instinct 
needed  would  be  produced  when  the  meliorated  con- 
ditions came,  and  thus  the  created  supply  be  afforded 
successively  ;  but  as  with  the  creation  of  the  mechani- 
cal atoms,  it  may  better  be  assumed  that  all  needed 
and  designed  grades  of  instinctive  life-want  were,  at 
the  outset,  superinduced  upon  ethereal  energies,  and 
that  each,  as  primitively  created,  waits  its  appropriate 
occasion  to  do  its  work  in  the  better  circumstances 
when  the  period  arrives.  This  anticipative  provision 
would  equally  manifest  divine  power  and  wisdom  as 
in  a  directly  extemporaneous  interposition,  and  with 
seemingly  more  comprehensive  self-possession  and 
dignity  in  the  Author. 

As,  then,  the  occasion  for  more  complicated  assimi- 
lations shall  come,  there  must  be  present,  in  addition 
to  the  feeling  of  deficiency  for  merely  incorporating 
complemental  elements,  a  feeling  of  deficiency  for 
securing  helps  and  instruments  for  working  these 
more  complicated  assimilations,  and  which  will  be  a 
higher  life-instinct  than  that  which  has  been  Avorking 
unicellular  products. 

Such  advanced  instinctive  want  is  superinduced 
upon  the  light-force,  and  the  light  becomes  at  once  a 
so  much  higher  life-power,  and  competent  to  so  much 


302  .KNOWLEDGE  OF  CREATION. 

higher  and  complex  assimilations.  The  sustenance  to 
be  appropriated  lies  about,  different  in  kind  and  in 
diverse  localities.  The  food  from  the  earth,  and 
water,  and  air,  must  have  facile  instruments  for  taking 
and  using  according  to  its  condition.  In  unicellular 
life,  this  is  at  hand,  and  immediately  imbibed  and 
absorbed  in  the  cell-assimilations ;  but  now,  what  is  in 
earth  and  water  must  be  mingled  in  assimilation  with 
that  which  is  in  the  air;  and  root  and  stock,  branch 
and  leaf,  must  be  provided  to  minister  their  subser- 
viences accordingly.  Where  the  food  itself  removes, 
,or  is  already  in  remote  places,  the  structure  must 
have  members  for  locomotion,  and  for  grasping, 
carrying,  and  digesting  while  moving;  and  this  entire 
apparatus  must  be  packed  in  accordant  consistency. 
While,  then,  the  morphology  of  one  kingdom  must  be 
of  root,  stem,  and  branches,  another  kingdom  will 
have  its  rule  over  constructions  in  the  general  form 
of  head,  body,  and  conforming  members ;  and  in  both 
these  kingdoms,  their  varied  general  structures  must 
have  their  particular  conformations  and  arranged  mem- 
bers according  to  what  is  to  be  each  one's  habitat  and 
mode  of  life.  The  instinctive  want  must  prompt  in 
the  building  of  the  structure,  and  the  laws  of  com- 
parative anatomy  and  physiology  will  be  already 
determined  in  the  spontaneous  instinct  superinduced 
upon  the  ethereal  atom.  Each  primitive  life-power 
will  have  in  it,  from  the  Creator,  its  own  type  of 
construction  and  mode  of  perpetuation. 

Here  we  rise  to  a  higher  unity  than  that  of  Individ- 


LIFE   ORGANIZATION.  303 

uality.  The  many  combinations  in  negative  unity 
are  held  in  the  indivisible  bond  of  the  same  diffused 
instinct  not  only,  but  here  are  distinct  instinctive  con- 
structions held  in  one  by  a  spontaneity  that  runs 
through  all.  Each  organ,  as  the  leaf  of  the  plant,  or 
the  lungs  of  the  animal,  or  the  ear  or  eye  of  sense, 
is  strictly  an  individual,  having  its  own  instinctive 
want  controlling  its  own  construction,  and  building 
it  up  from  its  own  exclusive  protoplasm  or  cellulose 
growth  ;  and  yet  all  the  individual  organs  are  held 
subservient  to  a  higher  Individuality  that  controls 
them  while  they  subserve  it,  making  of  all  organs  an 
organism  in  strict  organic  unity. 

And  so  the  distinctive  and  graded  types  of  organic 
life  are  given  at  the  start  by  the  Creator,  in  the  super- 
induction  of  appropriate  instinctive  wants  upon  ethe- 
real forces,  which  spontaneously  go  out  to  their  con- 
structive work  when  the  occasions  open.  From  the 
unicellular  plant-life  there  rises,  through  all  types  of 
plant-production  in  their  primal  grades  of  instinct 
as  originally  created,  all  vegetable  forms  not  only,  but 
these  prepare  the  way  for  types  of  organism  in  a 
higher  kingdom,  and  which  are  alike  created  at  the 
start,  and  begin  the  construction  of  the  lowest  animal 
forms  of  life,  but  little  subsequent  to  and  immediately 
starting  up  from  the  lowest  plant-formations.  The 
brittleworts  scarcely  begin  their  multiplying  ere  the 
jelly-like  forms  of  the  protozoa  are  introduced,  and 
the  world  of  sense  opens  scarcely  above  the  life  of 
plant-instinct.     In  their  lowest  forms,   the   protozoa 


304  KNOWLEDGE   OP  CREATION. 

take  their  food  without  a  mouth,  digest  without  a 
stomach,  move  without  muscles,  and  multiply  with 
no  media  of  embryo,  or  egg,  or  sex.  There  is  barely 
assimilation  with  scarcely  incipient  organization.  But 
soon  the  rising  orders  of  the  Foraminifera  are  found, 
whose  fossil  remains  are  as  countless  as  the  sands 
with  which  they  are  mingled.  Their  complex  shapes, 
and  colored  shells,  and  incipient  sense-organs,  show 
the  decidedly  opening  work  of  the  organizing  agency. 
The  unicellular  constructions  at  the  base  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom  are  the  support  also  of  the  azotic 
cellulose  of  the  animal  kingdom,  and  from  this  ground, 
in  graded  organism,  each  pyramid  of  plant  and  animal 
life  rises,  with  less  breadth  as  the  organism  is  the 
more  elevated,  in  diverging  lines  of  direction  con- 
joined at  the  bottom,  but  wide  apart  in  separate 
grandeur  at  their  tops. 

5.  A  HIGHER  Organizing  Instinct  works  Sex-dis- 
tinctions.—  Rising  above  unicellular  life,  among  the 
earlier  plants  are  such  as  exhibit  incipient  organs 
with  distinct  functions,  but  which  are  yet  rootless, 
leafless,  and  flowerless ;  and  still  further  along  are 
plants  with  root,  stock,  and  forming  leaf,  utterly 
sexless,  and  which  perpetuate  their  kind  from  collected 
grains  of  protein  enclosed  in  spores,  that  start  off 
in  separate  plants  from  any  part  of  the  spore's  sur- 
face. And  so,  also,  with  the  lower  forms  of  animal 
life ;  they  are  but  memberless  masses  of  cellulose, 
multiplying  by  dividing  in  parts,  with  no  sexual  dis- 


LIFE  IN  SEX-DISTINCTIONS.  305 

tinction.  These  separate  bodies  are  but  as  separate 
buds  of  the  same  plant,  or  at  most  as  extensions  of 
the  same  plant  by  slips  and  grafts.  They  have  no 
propagation  of  new  individuals. 

But  for  higher  organization,  and  wider  variety, 
and  renewals  in  fresh  vitality,  and  an  opening  way 
towards  communion  in  social  life,  there  comes  the 
need  for  propagating  the  kind,  in  new  individuals, 
through  successive  generations.  To  practically  meet 
the  empty  need,  there  must  here,  as  in  all  former 
cases  of  rising  to  a  higher  life  in  a  higher  unity,  be 
an  original  addition  to  the  instinctive  life-want.  The 
deficiency  is  in  a  higher  point,  and  a  new  feeling 
must  wake  to  it,  and  be  a  want  for  it,  and  a  prompt- 
ing instinct  to  fill  it ;  and  this  new  instinct  can  only 
come  from  the  great  creative  source.  In  the  light  of 
reason  "  it  is  not  good  "  that  the  single  organism  "  be 
alone  ;  "  the  "  help  meet  for  it ''  is,  a  division  of  the  one 
organic  life  into  two  genders,  and  the  begetting  of 
descendants  through  this  double  parentage.  Leaving 
some  of  the  lower  organic  forms  to  perpetuate  their 
kind,  solely  by  separating  the  growing  cellulose  into 
parts,  the  Creator  superinduces  upon  the  organizing, 
instinct,  for  other  and  higher  forms,  the  further  spon- 
taneity to  put  that  one  organic  life  in  two  divisions 
of  male  and  female,  and  give  the  one  stock  in  two 
sexes.  Such  imparted  formative  instinct  organizes 
the  female  with  an  ovarium,  in  which  are  the  proto- 
plastic elements  for  new  organizations,  but  which  in 
themselves  alone  are  wholly  component  organs  of  the 
20 


306.  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

female,  and  belong  to  the  one  female  life.  The  or- 
ganizing instinct  constitutes  the  male  with  sexual 
organs,  in  which  ethereal  elements  are  infused  with 
the  life-power  for  new  fertilization,  but  which  is  yet 
a  component  part  of  the  male  organism,  and  stands  in 
its  one  life,  and  can  go  over  into  no  new  organization 
of  its  own.  except  as  it  shall  embody  itself  in  the 
protoplastic  preparations  of  the  female  ovarium.  In 
both  cases,  separate  sexual  life  is  fruitless,  and  prop- 
agation ensues  only  on  the  concurrence  of  the  two 
sexual  vitalities.  This  newly  engendered  life,  in  the 
incipient  organizing  of  the  female  protoplasm,  begins 
a  new  individual,  known  as  an  embryo.  The  life-power 
from  the  male  is  known  as  the  sperm;  and  the  pro- 
toplastic contribution  of  the  female  is  known  as  the 
germ;  the  concrete  unity  of  the  two  is  a  new  In- 
dividual Organism.  The  parentage  is  conjoint,  and 
the  offspring  several ;  every  descendant  of  the  dual 
parentage  is  in  as  distinct  individuality  as  was  either 
the  male  or  the  female  Ancestor. 

This  sex-organizing  instinct  works  in  varied  forms 
in  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdom.  While  the 
merely  organizing  instinct,  in  the  plant,  sets  the  leaf- 
bud  in  its  place,  that  it  may  minister  to  the  elonga- 
tion and  enlargement  of  stem  and  branch,  the  sex- 
organizing  instinct,  annually  or  so  often  as  there  is 
fruit-bearing,  sets  the  seed-bud  of  quite  another  kind 
in  place  for  the  end  of  new  propagations ;  and  this  in 
its  way  and  season  flowers  and  ripens  into  fruit,  which 
fruit  has  in  it  the  embryo  of  a  new  organic  individu- 


LIFE  IN  SEX-DISTINCTIONS.  307 

ality.  The  plant  itself  has  no  sex ;  but  its  sex-organiz- 
ing instinct  produces  in  it,  year  by  year,  its  sex-dis- 
tinctions. These,  on  filling  the  sex-want,  pass  away 
to  rise  again  in  their  period  for  successive  propaga- 
tions. Commonly,  the  seed-bud  holds  both  sexes, 
and  the  opening  flower  in  the  same  calyx  has  the 
male  organs  of  stamen,  anther,  and  pollen,  and  also 
the  female  arrangement  of  pistil  and  ovule.  The 
generation  of  the  seed  is  carried  on  within  the  same 
floral  envelope.  Sometimes  the  male  organs  occupy 
one  part  of  the  plant,  and  the  female  another  and 
even  quite  distant  part,  as  in  the  maize ;  again,  a 
wider  separation  is  found,  as  in  varieties  of  the 
strawberry,  with  male  and  female  flowers  on  their 
separate  plants.  The  common  form  of  plant-sexualiza- 
tion  is  known  as  hermaphrodite,  the  second  form  as 
monoecious,  and  the  third  as  dioecious.  The  sex  can 
hardly  be  said  to  belong  to  the  plant,  but  to  the 
flowers  the  sex-instinct  brings  from  the  plant. 

In  animal  life,  the  lower  forms  can  scarcely  be  dis- 
tinguished from  plants,  and  have  had  the  name  zo- 
ophytes, as  though  they  were  participants  of  both 
kingdoms.  But  as  zoophytes  multiply  in  their  sex- 
less varieties  and  numbers,  there  comes  the  need  for 
sexual  distinction,  and  the  organizing  instinct  is  origi- 
nated and  wprks  out  the  kind  in  two  genders.  In  the 
acephalous  bivalve,  from  a  necessity  given  by  the 
conformation,  the  generating  process  must  begin  and 
pass  within  the  confines  of  the  one  animal,  and  we 
have  the  hermaphrodite   gender  within  the  jointed 


308  KNOWLEDGE  OF   CREATION.      . 

valves,  as  in  the  common  plant  we  have  both  pollen 
and  ovule  together  in  a  common  calyx.  Another  ris- 
ing step  is  again  given  in  the  sex- forming  instinct 
before  there  is  reached  full  distinctive  sex-organiza- 
tion. The  earth-worm  is  hermaphrodite  in  a  peculiar 
way ;  each  individual  is  of  both  sexes ;  but  instead  of 
self-engendering,  two  together  reciprocally  impreg- 
nate each  other.  Above  these,  the  organizing  sex- 
instinct  is  given,  which  produces  the  kind  in  distinct 
male  and  female  individuality  from  the  origin. 

Sexual  distinctions  in  plants  are  in  the  bud:  in 
animals,  the  sex  is  distinguished  in  the  embryo. 
From  the  birth  animals  go  out,  as  from  the  direction 
of  Noah  they  went  into  the  Ark,  "  male  and  female 
of  every  kind."  And  of  man,  the  crown  of  animal 
beings  it  may  be  taken  just  as  it  is  revealed,  that  God 
created  him  male  and  female  by  first  forming  the 
man,  and*  then  forming  woman  from  that  which  was 
taken  out  of  man.  Animal  life  is  thus  constituted  as 
a  fountain,  in  its  respective  kinds,  passing  out  in  two 
streams,  of  nearly  equal  breadth  and  depth  of  current, 
in  the  sexes,  through  successive  generations,  whether 
the  form  of  generation  be  oviparous  or  viviparous. 
In  lowest  stages,  the  stock  is  merely  prolonged  by 
cuttings,  or  in  vegetable  spores  and  tubers ;  in  the 
higher  stages,  sexual  generation  propagates  the  stock 
in  renewed  life  through  successive  individual  de- 
scendants. The  life  runs  out  in  the  failure  of  the 
ancestry,  but  is  renewed  and  runs  persistently  on, 
with  ever  fresh  vigor,  in  the  offspring. 


sexual  propagation  perpetuates  species.    309 

6.  Sexual  Propagation  carries  in  it  the  Unity 
OF  Species.  —  Propagation  by  cuttings,  or  through 
stor-ed-up  protein  in  spores  or  tubers,  is  but  a  pro- 
longation of  the  one  old  stock,  although  reset  in  mul- 
tipHed  separate  places.  The  willow  from  the  reset 
branch,  the  strawberry  rootlet  from  an  advanced  joint, 
is  yet  in  each  case  as  truly  the  old  plant  growing- 
out  as  if  there  had  been  a  growing  on  without  sepa- 
ration. The  tuber  of  the  potato,  planted  through  un- 
numbered series,  carries  out  only  the  old  stock,  and 
the  peculiarity  of  a  new  variety  of  the  old  stock  can 
be  attained  only  through  the  sexual  generation  of  the 
seed  in  the  potato-ball.  The  flowerless  plants  and 
the  sexless  protozoa  multiply  their  parts  in  separate 
places,  and  those  parts  become  independent  wholes 
of  their  own ;  but  they  are  still  the  old  produced,  and 
not  a  new  begotten.  Convenience  may  classify  the 
produced  wholes  as  the  species  from  the  old  stock, 
but  rational  science  can  find  only  the  old  repeating 
itself,  and  not  the  old  renewing  its  kind  in  so  many 
generated  selves. 

But  in  sexual  propagation,  an  instinctive  want,  to 
the  same  end  as  in  the  old  stock,  has  gone  over  from 
the  male,  and  coalesced  with  the  congenial  material 
elements  supplied  in  the  female,  and  in  tliis  genera- 
tion from  two  sexual  sources  a  new  life  begins,  which 
process  is  repeated  in  every  begotten  embryo.  The 
sperm  and  germ  from  joint  congenial  sources  become 
one  organic  life  in  the  descendant.  The  two  must 
meet,  and  in  coalescing  they  make  a  distinct  living 


310  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

organism.  The  poUan  must  penetrate  and  fertilize 
the  pistil ;  the  spermatozoa  must  impregnate  the  ova- 
rium ;  and  in  every  descent  from  this  duplex  source, 
the  new  life-power  has  taken  the  same  instinctive 
prompting  to  its  end  as  was  that  of  the  parentage, 
and  the  original  type-instinct  of  the  progenitors  runs 
down  through  all  their  posterity,  and  in  which  is  a 
unity  more  widely  comprehensive  than  any  yet  before 
reached,  viz.,  the  unity  of  many  individual  organisms 
in  the  ancestral  type,  and  which  is  the  true  unity  of 
species. 

The  distinctive  type  is  in  the  end  of  the  peculiar 
want  which  is  given  in  the  organizing  instinct.  Each 
instinctive  prompting  to  organize  is  after  an  origi- 
nally given  pattern,  or  archetype,  and  the  kinds  origi- 
nally here  given  include  all  the  kinds  that  universal 
life-power  anywhere  presents.  Take,  then,  any  ori: 
ginal  organizing  instinct,  and  which  prompts  to  its 
end  through  sexual  distinctions,  and  this  will  have  its 
distinctive  type  in  the  end  of  the  want  after  which  it 
works,  and  which  must  constantly  come  out,  more  or 
less  modified  by  the  conditions  of  the  case,  in  every 
begotten  individual.  The  type-instinct  is  a  constant 
which  runs  through  and  binds  in  one  all  the  descend- 
ants, and  amid  all  numbers  and  varieties  of  engen- 
dered descendants  the  one  original  type  holds  them 
in  unity.  Each  individual  descendant  has  his  organic 
unity ;  all  the  descendants  of  the  original  type,  in  the 
accordant  progenitors,  have  the  higher  unity  of 
species. 


SEXUAL   PROPAGATION   PERPETUATES  SPECIES.      311 

The  law  regulating  the  propagation  of  species  is 
thus  found  in  the  determined  working  of  the  inner 
specific  instinct,  according  to  its  original  type.  In 
the  individual,  the  organizing  instinct  has  been  in  the 
interest  and  to  the  end  of  the  individual  only,  and  all 
the  organs  have  been  formed  and  placed  for  expedi- 
ency and  convenience  in  the  one  being.  The  root, 
stock,  and  leaf  have  their  adaptations  to  the  one  plant ; 
and  the  heart,  lungs,  and  stomach,  with  eye,  ear,  and 
limb,  have  their  teleological  form  and.  arrangement  in 
reference  to  the  one  animal.  And  so  in  the  sex-organ- 
ization, the  instinct  has  worked  to  the  end  and  in  the 
interest  of  the  kind,  in  the  unity  of  the  one  species. 
The  two  genders  are  in  accordant  sympathy,  and  are 
thus  congenial  in  that  they  each  have  their  mutual 
adaptation  to  the  propagation  of  the  one  kind.  The 
normal  working  of  sex-distinctions  must,  therefore,  be 
in  the  perpetuation  of  the  one  species,  in  that  the 
congeniality  of  male  and  female  controls  their  engen- 
dering. Both  sex-conformation  and  sex-inclination 
determine  the  propagated  posterity  to  be  of  their 
own  accordant  type.  Variable  conditions  in  the  prop- 
agation will  make  varieties  in  the  descendants,  but 
there  will  be  constancy  in  the  parental  type.  The 
conditions  may  sometimes  so  vary,  and  give  so  wide  a 
diversity,  as  to  make  the  variety  hereditary;  and 
there  will  be  forthwith  propagated  a  distinct  breed  or 
race.  Races  may  so  widely  vary  that  cohabitation 
between  them  may  become  reciprocally  repugnant, 
and  the  blending  of  races  be  infrequent  and  the  off- 


312  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

spring  less  vigorous.  The  crossing  of  breeds  in 
which  there  is  no  repugnance  will  facilitate  returning 
conforlnity  with  the  normal  type,  and  give  a  more 
healthful  and  prolific  progeny.  It  may,  also,  in  some 
cases,  occur,  that  truly  distinct  species  may  come  in 
so  near  accordance  of  type-instinct,  that  there  may  be 
a  promiscuous  engendering  induced  between  their 
sexes,  yet  as  such  hybrid  progeny  could  bring  with 
them  no  specific  type,  they  must  ordinarily  be  barren; 
and  if  in  few  cases  of  nearest  conformity  of  ancestral 
type,  the  hybrid  stock  perpetuate  itself,  it  will  be 
with  growing  tendencies  to  return  to  the  normal  type 
in  one  or  the  other  species  of  the  abnormal  parentage. 
The  specific  instinct  is  perpetually  directed  to  its  own 
end  through  ail  occurring  varieties  or  hybridities,  and 
thus  works  a  persistent  integrity  of  species  through 
occasional  modifications,  and  even  partial  interblend- 
ings.  Speculatively,  descent  from  one  original  pair 
for  the  species  would  be  of  no  importance.  The  unity 
of  species  is  in  the  type  as  given  by  the  formative 
instinct,  and  if  one  or  many  seeds  or  pairs  be  first  cre- 
ated, those  of  accordant  type-instinct  will  propagate 
together  the  one  species. 

What  has  been  called  "natural  development,"  or 
"  law  of  evolution,"  to  account  for  the  origin  and  per- 
petuation of  species,  is  utterly  unphilosophical,  be- 
cause wholly  destitute  of  all  reason.  It  starts  in 
experience,  and  never  attains  anything  to  expound 
the  experience.  Single  activities  are  found  branch- 
ing out  into  multiplied  varieties,  and  each  variety 


SEXUAL   PROPAGATION  PERPETUATES  SPECIES.      313 

running  into  further  changes,  and  what  is  so  far  found 
to  be  fact  is  assumed  everywhere  to  be  law,  that  prog- 
ress is  universally  from  the  more  simple  to  the  more 
complex ;  and  it  gives  the  law  of  evolution  to  be 
"  from  the  homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous."  Ex- 
amining still  further,  it  finds  the  heterogeneous  in 
progress  becoming  the  more  definite  ;  and  then  that  the 
definite  integrates  in  the  concrete  ;  and  the  whole  law 
of  nature's  evolution  is  from  the  simplest  to  the  most 
definite  and  concrete  forms  of  heterogeneous  elements. 
To  the  question,  Why  such  order  of  evolution  ?  it  can 
answer  nothing;  and  only  assumes  to  have  attained  a 
knowledge  of  force  deeper  than  consciousness,  and 
that  all  conversions  of  forces  stand  in  the  persistence 
of  the  one  absolute  force ;  and  of  the  absolute  force, 
it  affirms  it  to  be  unknowable,  and  that  we  cannot 
determine  whether  it  be  personal. 

Now,  the  attainment  of  species  from  such  "  natural 
development "  fancies  that  in  infinite  time  we  may  go 
back  to  the  primitively  simple  and  homogeneous,  out 
of  which  all  slowly-growing  orders  of  heterogeneous, 
definite,  and  concrete  existences  have  come. 

But  suppose  that  fancy  to  be  fact;  and  that  we 
have  come  to  stand  face  to  face  with  that  primal  sim- 
ple existence,  and  even  that  we  'know  it  as  absolute 
force  in  its  homogeneity,  —  how  are  we  to  know  any- 
thing about  its  development?  What  right  have  we 
to  say  anything  about  development  and  evolution? 
How  start  from  this  simple  to  go  out  into  the  more 
complex,  and  from  this  to  the  more  definite,  and  from 


314  KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 

this  to  the  concrete,  and  thence  to  the  specific  forms 
of  concrete  being?  If  we  first  know  simple  forces  as 
having  already  in  them  their  gravity  and  polarity, 
then  may  we  know  that  if  they  are  multiplied  they 
must  take  on  other  forms,  and  these  forms  be  more 
definite,  and  the  definite  more  concrete ;  the  elements 
must  become  compound,  and  the  compounds  more  co- 
hesive. The  molecules  must  become  heaps,  and  the 
heaps  harden  into  rocks  and  mountains.  But  if  we 
have  even  the  primitive  force  in  its  simplicity  only, 
we  can  say  nothing  of  its  heterogeneity,  or  definite- 
ness,  or  concretion,  or  any  law  of  evolution.  We  have 
no  envelopment,  and  have  no  logical  permission  to  say 
anything  about  c^evelopment.  And  even  if  we  grant 
to  this  theory  its  progressive  advancement  from  sim- 
ple forces  to  definite  heterogeneous  molecules,  and 
thence  to  more  definite  and  concrete  heterogeneous 
rocks  and  mountains,  these  aggregated  rocks  and 
mountains,  in  all  their  varieties,  have  nothing  of  the 
unity  of  species  about  them.  They  are  put  together 
from  the  outside,  and  have  neither  organic  growth 
nor  genetic  propagation. 

But  it  is  here  urged  that  nature  has  already  its  or- 
ganisms, and  their  genetic  propagations,  and  that  Ave 
may  assume  its  original  law  to  have  been  "  like  pro- 
ducing like,"  but  with  conditional  exceptions ;  and 
then  the  theory  of  "  natural  selection  "  is  introduced 
to  account  for  the  origin  and  perpetuation  of  species. 
Some  simple  organism  arose  and  propagated  its  like, 
and  in  varied  conditions  its  slightly  modified  varieties ; 


SEXUAL   PROPAGATION  PERPETUATES  SPECIES.      315 

and  such  as  were  competent  to  endure  the  struggle 
for  existence  survived,  and  the  improving  modifica- 
tions have  come  out  progressively  in  surviving  spe- 
cies, while  myriads  have  been  abortive,  and  gone 
down  in  annihilation  without  a  record.  In  infinite 
time  there  has  been  opportunity  for  so  originating, 
and  preserving  through  the  myriad  abortions,  all  the 
graded  species,  step  by  step,  up  from  the  lowest  to 
the  highest. 

But  whence  came  this  assumed  first  organism,  with 
its  law  of  genetic  propagation?  Certainly  it  can  be 
no  development  from  simple  force,  for  it  controls  and 
uses  force  spontaneously.  It  is  more  than  force,  and 
cannot  be  evolved  from  any  mechanical  agency.  But, 
having  assumed  the  primal  simple  organism,  how  ele- 
vate it  through  all  the  sub-kingdoms  of  organic  exist- 
ence? Certainly,  again,  not  in  any  evolution,  for  in 
the  primary  the  simplest  only  is  involved.  Infinite 
time,  if  it  may  give  varieties  under  conditions,  can 
possibly  give  no  elevations  above  what  already  the 
primal  organism  has.  If  the  lower  may  be  evolved 
into  the  higher,  it  may  as  well  be  in  one  leap  as 
through  the  million  ages.  Besides  the  terrible  waste 
in  the  abortive  productions,  even  assuming  there 
could  be  the  evolving  of  higher  organisms  from  lower, 
such  fortuitously  occurring  higher  organisms  must 
themselves  perpetually  modify  the  circumstances  in 
the  battle  for  life,  and  the  coming  up  of  a  successful 
new  species  may  make  the  persistency  of  any  old 
species  henceforth  impossible,  and  so  successively  the 


316  KNOWLEDGE   OF  CREATION. 

coDflict  of  all  to  be  desperate.  What  sure  road 
throughout  such  dangers,  fortuitously  arising,  could 
any  species  have  for  gaining  its  passage  through  the 
chaos,  and  coming  and  permanently  abiding  within  a 
rational  Cosmos? 

But  with  an  organizing  instinct  superinduced  upon 
mechanical  forces,  and  using  them  according  to  the 
specific  type  in  the  end  of  its  own  want,  we  have  in 
sex-generation  a  rational,  and  so  a  philosophical,  de- 
termination, for  the  unity  and  persistency  of  all  fos- 
sil and  living  species,  till  the  typical  instinct  itself 
be  crushed  or  exhausted,  when  the  species  per- 
ishes. 

7.  Not  Sex-Instinct,  but  the  Absolute  Ideal,  de- 
termines THE  HIGHER  UnITY  OF  ALL  SpECIES. — The 
organizing  instinct  unites  the  separate  organs  in  the 
individual,  and  through  sex-propagation  the  individ- 
uals in  the  species,  and  with  this  the  formative  life- 
instinct  terminates^  Nature  will  not  disclose  within 
herself  the  formal  determinations  which  unite  the 
species  in  their  genera.  The  creating  Logos  has 
been  guided  by  the  Eternal  Ideas  in  making  the 
original  types  for  all  species ;  and  the  creating  Spirit 
has  been  guided  by  the  Absolute  Ideal  in  compre- 
hending all  specific  types  of  being  in  universal  con- 
sistency and  order;  and  thus  the  gradations  of 
species  are  to  be  sought  only  in  the  supernatural 
arrangement  of  Absolute  Reason.  Since  creation  is 
the  work  of  Absolute  Reason,  and  all  organic  unity 


GRADATIONS   OP  SPECIES   AFTER  THE  IDEAL   MAN.      317 

has  its  source  in  Eternal  wisdom,  there  must  be  a 
rational  end  in  the  introduction  of  all  created  Organ- 
isms ;  and  all  types  of  being  must  conspire  in  partic- 
ular gradation  towards  the  consummation  of  all  in 
that  end.  And  though  this  may  be  determined 
through  many  stages  by  unifying  forces  and  powers 
put  within  nature,  yet  somewhere  we  must  come 
to  the  link  which  is  ultimate  in  nature,  and  has  no 
higher  connection  through  second  causes,  but  is  held 
immediately  in  the  Creator's  own  hand.  Even  finite 
reason  can  never  satisfy  itself  in  classifying  through 
endless  categories,  but  must  at  last  comprehend  all 
its  classifications  in  creative  unity,  which  Absolute 
wisdom  has  conceived,  and  Omnipotence  executed, 
and  Essential  Goodness  adorned,  as  the  completed 
universal  work  of  one  Supreme  Being.  We  stop, 
then,  here  with  the  organizing  power  in  nature, 
where  the  life-instinct,  by  sex-distinctions,  has  been 
arranging  through  all  generations  individual  organ- 
isms in  the  unity  of  species.  If  further  study  of 
nature  shall  find  some  higher  organific  bond,  hold- 
ing her  species  in  more  generic  comprehension,  all 
very  well,  and  most  gratefully  to  be  accepted  when 
validly  confirmed  ;  but  the  deepest  insight  into  na- 
ture cannot  now  read  any  natural  unity  in  her  pro- 
ductions, any  further  than  the  sexual  distinctions 
send  the  unchanged  parental  types  down  through 
their  successive  generations. 

Wo   look,  then,  now  only  to   the   arrangement   of 
specific   types   by  original  supernatural   creation,  as 


318  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION.    . 

indicating  the  Eternal  Archetype  after  which  organic 
life  has  been  arranged,  and  species  graded,  and  do 
not  anticipate  any  natural  medium  here  between  us 
and  the  Creator. 

This  connecting  Archetype,  as  Eternal  Ideal,  will 
be  clearly  seen  when  we  contemplate  man  as  the 
consummation  and  crown  of  all  terrestrial  life.  The 
human  organism  is  the  antitype,  after  which  all  types 
have  in  their  gradation  been  fashioned  ;  and  each 
rising  step  has  been  as  if  the  succession  were  antici- 
pative,  and  emulous  to  reach  and  rest  in  the  com- 
pleted human  structure ;  erect  in  stature,  expressive 
in  attitude,  look,  and  movement,  and  holding  dominion 
over  every  creature  on  the  earth.  Something  of  the 
model  of  the  man  is  in  all  lower  animal  forms ;  and  as 
man  grows  up  from  embryonic  generation,  he  passes 
all  the  inferior  stages.  The  generic  orders  of  uni- 
versal Animated  Nature  find  their  unity  in  the  eter- 
nal Idea  of  Humanity. 

Each  rising  unity  has,  then,  its  interest  and  end 
within  its  own  comprehension.  Each  organ  has  an 
instinctive  want  working  to  its  own  completeness 
and  preservation.  Each  individual  has  every  organ 
in  its  own  interest,  and  the  one  life-want  working  in 
and  through  them  for  its  own  end.  Each  peculiarity 
of  sex-distinction  is  in  the  interest  of  generating  a 
new  organism  from  the  double-parentage.  The  mam- 
msB  of  a  man  is  not  for  the  man's  interest,  but  its 
nerve-sympathy   is   wholly    in    the    interest    of   the 


GRADATIONS   OF  SPECIES   AFTER   THE   IDEAL   MAN.      319 

double-gender.  Every  law  of  perpetuated  type,  and 
varied  race,  and  determined  hybridity  i8  in  the  inter- 
est of  the  species.  It  is  not  for  the  good  of  the  mule 
that  the  hybrid  is  barren,  but  for  the  two  species 
between  which  the  mule  stands,  making  it  necessary 
that  all  propagation  shall  lie  back  in  the  one  ancestral 
type  or  the  other.  And  so,  also,  when  we  come  to 
the  original  creative  Ideal,  which  puts  all  species  in 
graded  unity  up  to  man  ;  it  is  not  in  man's,  nor  any 
lower  animal  species'  interest,  that  such  graded  suc- 
cession obtains,  but  "  God  has  given  to  each  a  body 
as  it  has  pleased  liirrij  and  to  every  seed  his  own 
body,"  solely  in  the  end  of  his  own  rational  behest  j 
obliging  all  to  say,  *'  For  thy  pleasure  all  things  are, 
and  were  created."  The  teleological  principle  that 
all  organic  being  shall  foreshadow  man,  and  in  man's 
coming  shall  all  be  comprehended  in  man,  is  to  be 
sought  and  found  only  as  ending  in  God ;  and  which 
is  adequately  expressed  only  in  the  God-man's  own 
language,  "  Even  so,  0  Father,  because  it  seemed 
good  in  thy  sight."  The  "  good "  is,  that  to  Abso- 
lute Reason  this  was  seen  to  be  the  most  reason- 
able. So  we  follow  up  the  working  life-instinct, 
spontaneously  constituting  its  ascending  unities,  till 
we  reach  ultimately  the  creating  fiat  after  its  Eternal 
Ideal ;  and  the  unity  of  all  overt  real  existence,  in 
order  and  harmony  here,  compels  all  finite  reason  to 
recognize  the  Absolute  Reason  as  essentially  a  Tri- 
une Creator. 


320  KNOWLEDGE  OF  CREATION. 

8.  Organic  Life  terminates  in  Death.  —  It  would 
not  be  the  proper  meaning  of  death,  to  recall  the 
life-instinct  from  an  ethereal  atom,  and  leave  its 
diremptive  forces  again  to  themselves ;  this  would 
rather  be  the  annihilation  of  life,  since  the  separated 
life-want  would  thus  be  withdrawn  again  to  its  origi- 
nal source.  Nor  would  it  be  the  meaning  of  death  to 
take  the  living-light  from  matter,  and  then  conceive 
this  separated  life,  because  it  can  show  no  organic 
embodiment,  to  be  dead.  When  life  is  lost  from  a 
plant  or  an  animal,  we  can  only  speculatively  con- 
template the  lost  life  itself  as  somehow  existing  in 
an  unseen  state,  and  not  itself  dead,  but  only  invisi- 
ble. But  when  all  living  activity  ceases  in  the  body, 
and  the  lifeless  organism  begins  its  return  to  dissolu- 
tion, without  asking  of  the  departed  life  where  it  has 
gone,  it  is  of  the  dissolving  organism  that  we  speak 
as  dead,  with  no  reference  of  such  meaning  to  the 
life  away  from  the  organism,  wherever  that  life  may 
be  supposed  to  have  gone.  The  organism  without 
life  we  speak  of  as  death,  and  conceive  the  death  as 
wholly  relative  to  the  deserted  tabernacle,  and. not 
to  the  departed  inhabitant. 

So,  again,  when  the  organizing  instinct  has  ma- 
tured the  organism,  its  subsequent  activity  is  expend- 
ed in  preserving  the  matured  structure.  Assimilation 
and  dissolution  are  in  continual  succession,  and  the 
life-power  works  to  perpetuate  the  body  through  this 
ceaseless  flow,  by  introducing  the  new  on  the  ex- 
clusion of  the  old.     But  here  also  we  say,  that  it  is 


ORGANIC  LIFE  ENDS  IN  DEATH.  321 

not  the  continual  dying  of  the  changing  elements 
that  we  regard  when  we  speak  of  death,  but  the 
arresting  of  the  flow  at  once  in  the  cessation  of  all 
new  supplies,  and  the  falling  of  all  the  parts  together 
into  decomposition  and  disorganization. 

And  in  this  acceptation,  organic  death  is  to  be 
viewed  as  terminating  organic  life  from  the  very 
nature  of  the  case.  The  fulness  of  the  life-power  is 
expended  in  maturing,  and  then  in  perpetuating ;  and 
while  new  life  is  being  sent  on  in  posterity,  old  en- 
cumbrances and  burdens  augment  in  the  ancestry, 
and  vitality  and  recuperative  energy  dech'ne,  leaving 
the  organism  to  irreparable  decrepitude  and  decay. 
Any  shock  is  then  dangerous,  and  some  stroke  at 
length  will  be  fatal,  or  the  necessary  supply  grad- 
ually and  ultimately  completely  fail,  from  the  wear- 
ing out  of  the  life-power  in  exhausting  efforts  against 
reacting  material  impedimenta,  and  death  will  neces- 
sarily ensue. 

There  is  nothing  from  this  natural  necessity  of 
death,  as  seen  in  speculative  philosophy  to  follow 
from  the  order  of  sexual  generation,  to  impugn  the 
doctrine  of  immortality  for  man  as  given  in  revela- 
tion. We  may  further  along  see  how  the  superin- 
duction  of  a  rational  spirit  upon  animal  life  modifies 
the  organizing  agency,  and  opens  the  way  for  human 
immortality ;  but  it  is  enough  here  to  remove  all 
scruple  to  remark,  that  revelation  itself  manifestly 
supposes  that  the  natural  course  for  organic  life  is 
its  termination  in  death.  The  immortality  of  the 
21 


322  KNOWLEDGE  OF   CREATION. 

primitive  man  was  viewed  as  a  result  from  some 
special  divine  interference,  and  an  exclusion  of  such 
interposition  left  man,  of  course,  to  disease  and  death. 
The  "  tree  of  life  "  was  open  to  him  in  innocence  as 
the  source  and  pledge  of  perpetuated  life,  but  the 
forfeiture  of  life  by  his  fall,  and  the  incurring  of  the 
curse  of  death,  shut  out  all  remedial  interposition. 
What  had  else  replenished  life's  waning  vigor  was 
now  fenced  out  by  *'  a  flaming  sword  turning  every 
way,"  lest  he  should  "  eat  and  live  forever." 

Where  generated  life  is,  there  is  in  its  very  work- 
ing the  necessity  for  death.  The  very  exuviae  which 
life  throws  out  carry  with  them  some  of  the  energy 
of  life's  assimilations.  The  remains  of  a  once  living 
plant  are  the  more  facile  food  for  present  vegetation, 
and  the  excrements  of  animal  life  clothe  the  fearth 
in  richer  verdure.  There  is  a  change  in  the  very 
exhalations  of  the  living  body,  and  a  power  goes  out 
from  the  instinctive  life-want  which  not  only  builds 
up  organic  structures,  but  modifies  inorganic  nature, 
and  leaves  its  traces  on  the  material  world ;  and  this 
outgo  from  working  life  must  exhaust  the  vitality 
in  the  ancestry  that  the  posterity  may  have  more 
genial  conditions.  Natural  death  must  come  not  only, 
but  it  is  needed.  It  is  no  evil,  but  the  death  is  as 
sure  a  good  as  the  precedent  life.  The  meliorations 
wrought  by  the  living  generation  can  come  to  the 
next  only  through  previous  dissolution.  The  species 
matures,  and  more  elevated  species  originate,  and 
the   animal   kingdom   rises    on    the    .vegetable,   and 


ORGANIC   LIFIO   ENDS   IN   DEATH.  323 

human  personality  and  culture  crowns  brute  appetite, 
only  as  the  death  and  dissolution  of  that  below  gives 
possibility  for  that  which  is  higher.  Only  to  this 
crown  of  all  life,  as  it  is  in  man,  can  death  be  a  curse, 
and  this  only  as  a  reclaiming  of  an  imparted  preroga- 
tive which  his  sin  had  forfeited.  And  even  to  him 
the  curse  opens  into  a  blessing,  through  a  gracious 
redemption  and  promised  resurrection. 

Through  all  organic  being,  the  growth  and  preser- 
vation of  the  organism  is  by  the  death  and  departure 
of  the  successive  assimilated  elements,  and  the  melio- 
ration and  perpetuation  of  the  species  is  by  the  birth 
and  death  of  its  individuals.  Through  unmeasured 
eras  before  man  was  made,  and  cursed,  and  redeemed, 
the  changes  of  vegetable  and  animal  life  to  death,  and 
the  passing  of  the  vegetable  into  the  animal  life  by 
death,  have  been  steadily  moving  onward,  preparing 
a  dwelling-place  for  man,  and  opening  a  theatre  for  his 
probationary  discipline,  and  this  quite  as  much  by  the 
dying  as  by  the  living.  The  Fossil  Rocks  and  broad 
Coal  Beds,  and  deep  Petroleum  Fountains,  owe  their 
present  ministrations  to  human  want  as  really  to  the 
subsequent  taking  as  to  the  original  imparting  of 
life.  Nature  could  no  more  have  run  her  normal 
course  in  subserviency  to  man  without  the  interven- 
tion of  death  than  without  the  incoming  of  life.  Her 
first  seeds  had  in  them  the  law  of  coming  dissolution 
as  truly  as  that  of  previous  germination. 

So  life  flows  and  death  ensues,  and  yet  with  the 
conservation  of  the  essential  life-power  through  all 


324  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

the  vicissitudes  of  generation  and  dissolution.  Tho 
young  life  opens  fresh  and  vigorous,  but  the  generat- 
ing of  the  new  is  in  the  exhausting  of  the  old,  and 
the  more  prolific  the  stock,  the  sooner  the  flowering 
and  the  earlier  the  fruitage,  and  so  the  more  rapid  the 
stream  by  the  quickened  exhausting  and  dissolving, 
but  with  no  diminution  of  the  vital  essence.  As  one 
force  flows  into  another,  and  all  is  still  correlation  and 
conservation,  with  nothing  lost,  so  one  life  goes  and 
others  come,  but  all  is  but  conversion  from  one 
material  combination  to  another.  One  portion  of 
matter  succeeds  to  another  in  the  sadie  individual, 
and  one  individual  to  another  in  the  same  species, 
and  one  species  runs  out  and  another  is  brought  in 
as  the  material  elements  ripen ;  for  the  rational  life 
must  be  superinduced  before  the  individuality  can 
be  immortal. 

As  we  now  have  the  formative  life-instinct  in  con- 
templation, we  will,  in  a  summary  manner,  specula- 
tively follow  its  action  in  building  up  its  particular 
structures  in  the  several  rising  kingdoms  of  organic 
life,  and  more  particularly  and  discriminatingly  notice 
the  different  modes  of  activity  which  the  rising  grades 
of  organism  give  occasion  for  exhibiting  within  the 
completed  bodily  structures  of  the  successively  ad- 
vanced kingdoms. 


LIFE  IN  THE  VEGETABLE  KINGDOM.  325 


THE  REIGN  OF  LIFE  IN  THE   VEGETABLE    KINGDOM. 

The  cryptogamous  or  flowerless  plants  are  the 
lowest  and  least  complete  organisms  which  the  life- 
instinct  constructs,  opening  with  unicellular  forma- 
tions, which  multiply  by  an  inner  growth  and  outer 
expulsion,  rising  to  bodies  of  expanded  tissues  with 
fronds  and  thalli,  and  then  to  stems  of  firmer  texture, 
with  leaves  and  spores  which  vegetate  from  any  part 
of  their  surface.  All- these  varieties  are  with  no  dis- 
tinctions of  sex,  destitute  of  flowers  and  seed,  and 
yet  accumulate  an  immense  amount  of  cellulose  as 
nourishment  for  higher  forms  of  living  existence. 

At  a  more  advanced  stage,  the  life-instinct  builds 
the  more  complex  and  complete  organisms  in  the 
series  oi'  phenogamous  or  flowering  plants  with  full 
distinctions  of  sex,  and  flowers  and  seed  after  their 
kind,  and  with  the  complete  plant-organism  of  root, 
stem,  and  leaf.  The  aliment  of  the  plant  must  come 
mainly  from  the  earth,  become  assimilated  in  the 
light  and  air,  and  hence  the  vegetable  must  be  on  the 
general  plan  of  striking  its  root  in  the  ground,  throw- 
ing up  a  rising  stem,  and  spreading  abroad  branches 
and  leaves. 

The  root  has  the  varied  forms  of  bulbous,  tuberous, 
and  fibrous  ;  which  last  are  elongated  by  adding  new 
spongiole  cells  at  their  tips,  and  in  their  multiplying 
rootlets ;  and  in  the  root  is  often  stored  the  pabulum 


326  KNOWIJi:DGE   OP   CREATION. 

of  starch,  sugar,  and  oils  for  coming  exigencies.  The 
root  also  supports  and  holds  the  stem  firm,  in  the  con- 
flict of  the  branches  and  leaves  with  the  winds. 

The  stem,  as  longer  or  shorter,  gives  to  vegetation 
the  distinctions  of  herb,  shrub,  and  tree.  At  the 
salient  points  of  the  embryo,  where  the  life-instinct 
works  downward  in  the  root  and  upward  in  the  stem, 
is  the  yoke  which  holds  root  and  stem  together,  and 
through  which  the  circulation  passes,  with  no  fixed 
centre,  from  root*  to  branch,  and  again  from  leafy- 
branch  to  the  root.  When  the  vascular  tissues  are 
sent  down  from  the  leaves  within  the  pulpy  pith  of 
the  stem,  and  there  harden  into  firmer  fibre,  as  in  the 
palms,  the  botanic  distinction  of  endogenous  plants  is 
given ;  and  when  the  tissues  form  the  ligneous  growth 
out  from  the  stem  and  within  the  bark,  as  in  all  solid 
woods,  there  is  the  distinction  of  exogenous  plants. 
The  former  have  in  the  embryo  but  one  rudimentary 
seed-leaf,  or  cotyledon,  and  the  latter  have  the  embryo 
enclosed  between  two  cotyledons,  and  these  cotyledons 
are  from  the  life-instinct  of  the  ancestral  plant  filled 
with  protein  for  the  sustenance  of  the  new  plant  in 
its  opening  germination. 

The  upshoot  has  then  its  forming  huds  and  leaves, 
and  in  which  the  formative  life-work  is  of  the  highest 
interest,  more  specially  in  the  exogenous  class.  The 
leaf  is  wanted  for  oxygenating  and  elaborating  the 
sap  sent  into  it,  and  in  which  assimilative  process  the 
appropriate  elements  of  the  air  and  sunlight  are  con- 
ditional.    The  leaf  is  an  extension  of  the  tissues  of 


LIFE  IN  THE  VEGETABLE  KINGDOM.  327 

the  stock  in  the  upper  and  lower  surfaces,  and  these 
surfaces  spread  out  by  ribs  and  veins  of  firmer  tex- 
ture. The  upper  surface  catches  the  light,  and  the 
green-colored  protoplasm  proximate  to  it  becomes  the 
chlorophyll,  so  peculiarly  distinguishing  it  from  the 
fainter  green  of  the  lower  surface.  Between  the 
stem  and  foot-stalk  of  the  leaf  is  the  axillary  bud,  as 
an  embryo,  which  at  any  favoring  time  may  grow  out 
in  a  branch;  and  the  stalk  itself  has  its  terminal 
bud,  elongating  the  stem  from  one  leaf-node  to  an- 
other. The  received  sap,  prepared  in  the  leaf,  goes 
down  in  the  vascular  cellulose  of  the  branches,  and 
thence  in  the  stem,  and  through  the  yoke  into  the 
roots,  carrying  nourishment  and  forming  in  them  their 
ligneous  substance.  The  stem  and  branches  need 
their  uniform  nourishment  on  all  sides,  and  the  life- 
instinct  secures  this  by  giving  to  the  vascular  cellu- 
lose of  the  forming  stem  and  branch  a  spiral  growth, 
that  throws  out  the  leaves  and  buds  evenly  on  all 
sides,  whether  as  relatively  to  each  other  they  stand 
opposite,  alternate,  or  verticillate,  and  in  their  regular 
supply  from  higher  to  lower  keep  the  woody  part  of 
a  cylindrical  shape,  tapering  from  the  bottom  up- 
wards, and  so  securing  for  the  tree  the  highest 
strength  and  symmetry. 

And  here  we  have  a  special  manifestation  of  the 
life-instinct  spontaneously  using  nature  for  its  own 
ends.  It  facilitates  this  spiral  formation  by  using  the 
force  of  gravity  in  its  assistance.  An  air-bubble, 
working  up  against  the  downward  pressure  through 


328  KNOWLEDGE   OF  CREATION. 

the  water,  necessarily  rises  in  a  spiral  course  ;  and  the 
forming  cellulose  in  the  growing  branches  has  almost 
universally  attained  for  itself  this  advantage.  The 
terminal  buds  are  turned  upwards  from  horizontal  or 
pendent  positions,  and  the  cellulose  is  made  to  form 
itself  against  gravitating  pressure.  The  plant  re- 
gards its  need  of  light  more  than  this  advantage 
from  atmospheric  pressure,  and  for  the  sake  of  the 
sun-light  will  turn  towards  it,  though  it  may  be  in  the 
direction  with  gravity. 

That  this  upturned  direction  of  all  branches  is  in- 
stinctive for  such  natural  assistance,  has  been  tested 
by  iogenious  experiments.  In  Gray's  Botanical  Text 
Book  we  find  the  following  statement :  ''  The  seeds  of 
a  bean-plant  were  made  to  germinate  in  a  quantity  of 
moss  fastened  to  the  circumference  of  a  wheel,  which 
was  made  to  revolve  at  a  rapid  rate ;  where  the  seeds 
were  subjected  to  the  centrifugal  force  alone,  acting 
like  that  of  gravitation,  but  in  the  opposite  direction. 
On  examination,  after  some  days,  the  young  root  and 
stem  were  found  to  have  taken  the  direction  of  the 
axis  of  rotation,  the  former  being  turned  towards  the 
circumference,  and  the  latter  towards  the  centre  of 
the  wdieel.  The  same  result  took  place  when  the 
wheel  was  made  to  revolve  horizontally  with  consid- 
erable rapidity ;  but  when  the  velocity  was  moderate, 
the  roots  were  directed  obliquely  downwards  and  out- 
wards, and  the  stem  obliquely  upwards  and  inwards, 
in  obedience  to  the  centrifugal  force  and  the  power 
of  gravity  acting  at  right  angles  to  each  other."    But 


LIFE  IN  THE  VEGETABLE  KINGDOM.  329 

the  seeds  would  not  regard  such  offered  advantage 
to  the  attainment  of  a  spiral  vegetation  against  the 
higher  want  of  light,  for  "  when  caused  to  germinate 
in  moss  so  arranged  that  the  only  light  they  could  re- 
ceive was  reflected  from  a  mirror  which  threw  the 
solar  rays  upon  them  directly  from  below,  in  such 
case  their  roots  were  sent  upwards  into  the  moss,  and 
their  stems  downwards  towards  the  light." 

This  instinctive  spiral  tendency  prevails  in  the 
growing  flower  as  well  as  in  the  leaves  and  branches. 
The  cellular  tissue  Avhich  in  the  leaf-bud  would  be- 
come a  stem  with  spiral  leaves,  in  the  seed-bud  is 
made  successively,  first  a  whorl  of  sepals  in  a  calyx, 
then  of  petals  in  a  corolla,  then  of  stamens  and  their 
anthers,  and  lastly  the  pistillate  whorl  of  circling 
ovules  in  an  ovary.  The  parts  of  the  flower  are  but 
the  transformed  spirals  from  the  leaves,  and  are  inci- 
dent to  the  instinctive  working  of  the  life-want  for 
its  cylindrical  stem  and  branches.  And  this  gen- 
eral law  admits  of  many  varieties  in  the  flowering  as 
in  the  foliage.  If  we  should  assume  the  apple-blos- 
som as  a  normal  type  among  flowers,  having  five 
sepals  in  a  calyx,  alternating  with  five  petals  in  a 
corolla,  and  then  five  stamens  followed  by  five  pistils, 
all  regularly  alternating,  the  abnormal  varieties  would 
be  a  multitude,  making  their  distinctive  differences  to 
appear  in  every  portion  of  the  floral  combination. 

So  the  life-want  reigns  througl>  all  the  vegetable 
kingdom;  everywhere  it  is  exhibiting  its  instinctive 
working  to  its  ends,  and  adapting  a  change  of  means 


330  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

in  new  circumstances.  From  its  lowest  unicellular 
products  to  its  tallest  oaks  and  cedars,  and  in  the 
monstrous  sequoise  trees  of  California,  near  forty  feet 
in  diameter  and  four  hundred  feet  in  height,  it  is 
everywhere  spontaneously  and  unconsciously  reach- 
ing onward  to  its  ends,  and  directing  its  assimilating 
and  formative  energy,  by  the  help  of  nature  where  it 
may,  and  against  the  hinderances  of  nature  where  it 
must.  If  any  lesion  in  the  parts  of  the  bodily  struc- 
ture occur,  it  will  work  to  repair ;  if  deficiencies  are 
found,  it  will  work  to  supply ;  if  obstacles  are  met,  it 
works  to  remove  or  surmount  them.  In  changing 
conditions,  it  modifies  its  means  to  its  wants.  It 
sends  the  roots  or  the  branches  in  the  way  to  its 
nourishment ;  turns  the  leaves  to  the  light ;  and  the 
tree,  sheltered  in  the  forest  by  its  fellows,  spreads  its 
roots  upon  the  surface  soil,  but  when  standing  alone, 
it  sends  its  tap-root  deep  in  the  ground  to  hold  itself 
against  the  tempest. 

But  it  has  no  other  agency  than  in  spontaneously 
constructing.  It  comes  to  no  consciousness  in  the 
body  it  inhabits,  and  builds  up  its  cellulose  that  other 
and  higher  organisms  may  enjoy  it.  Vegetable  life  is 
not  for  itself,  and  only  as  an  instinctive  worker  from 
the  mineral,  that  the  sentient  may  afterwards  appro- 
priate and  enjoy.  Its  whole  activity  is  in  forming 
and  maintaining  its  organism ;  but  it  has  no  capacity 
to  use  its  organism,  or  live  in  it,  for  its  own  interests. 
There  is  neither  loco-motion  nor  conscious  mental 
action. 


SENSE  IN  THE  ANIMAL  KINGDOM.  331 


THE  REIGN   OF   SENSE  IN  THE   ANIMAL  KINGDOM. 

Vegetable  life  absorbs  carbon,  and  sends  off  its  ex- 
cess of  oxygen,  and  prepares  an  atmosphere,  and 
secures  in  itself  the  aliment  for  higher  organic  exist- 
ences. The  occasion  is  the  need  for  a  more  elevated 
formative  instinct,  which  may  take  the  cellulose  of  the 
plant  and  combine  it  anew  into  the  nerve,  and  muscle, 
and  bone  of  the  animal.  Plant  life  has  simply  instinc- 
tive craving,  and  an  agency  solely  in  the  direction  of 
its  longing,  and  only  builds  up  its  organism  and  re- 
pairs its  waste,  with  nothing  further  to  work  for. 
But  animal-life  is  essentially  nerve-irritability,  with 
a  central  organ  to  which  the  irritabiHty  comes,  and 
from  which  a  complementary  irritability  departs,  and 
in  which  is  the  source  of  self-feeling  and  self-finding, 
and  therein  the  capacity  for  recognizing  its  own  want 
and  directing  its  own  agency.  This  conscious  sensa- 
tion is  wholly  another  reign  than  plant-instinct,  and 
introduces  altogether  a  new  and  more  elevated  king- 
dom. When  the  instinct  has  constructed  the  organ- 
ism, the  sense  lives  and  acts  in  it  for  the  ends  of  its 
own  gratification. 

The  animal  organism  is  the  product  of  an  uncon- 
scious agency,  as  truly  as  in  the  vegetable  kingdom 
is  the  production  of  plants  and  trees ;  but  the  forma- 
tive instinct  here  works  to  another  and  further  end, 
that  it  may  raise  up  a  structure  in  which  sentient 


332  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

life  may  have  its  dwelling-place,  and  the  members  of 
which  the  sense  may  use  in  subserviency  to  its  own 
happiness;  and  yet,  until  the  organism  is  thus  in- 
stinctively constituted,  the  animal  reign  of  sentient 
irritability  cannot  begin.  As  the  mineral  could  not 
develop  itself  to  the  vegetable,  since  mechanical 
forces  have  within  them  no  spontaneity,  so  the 
vegetable  cannot  develop  to  the  animal,  since  in  the 
vegetable  is  no  sentient  irritability.  It  might,  per- 
haps, even  in  theologic  consistenc}^,  be  urged  that 
divine  wisdom  and  power  would  equally  be  mani- 
fested by  an  original  endowment  of  the  life- want  to 
rise,  on  occasion,  to  an  instinctive  animal  construc- 
tion, as  they  have  been  by  a  new  creation  of  the 
higher  life-want  when  the  occasion  came.  But  in- 
asmuch as  the  organizing  instinct  in  the  animal  econ- 
omy carries  plant-cellulose  to  nervous  irritability, 
there  must  be  a  power  given  to  it  which  the  plant- 
instinct  has  not;  and  then,  in  the  nervous  system, 
this  power  is  to  be  a  sentient  agency  and  a  conscious 
user  of  the  organism ;  and  in  both  respects  it  is  made 
manifest  that  animal-life  cannot  be  evolved  from  plant- 
life.  The  consideration  of  the  period  in  creating  is 
of  no  speculative  importance ;  and  it  may  as  well  be 
supposed  that  ethereal  atoms  had  their  nerve-want 
superinduced  when  others  had  their  plant-want,  as 
that  the  former  was  posterior  to  the  latter ;  and  then 
each  works  in  assimilating  and  organizing  after  its 
own  kind,  as  the  conditions  of  their  respective  com- 
binations are  given.     The  animal  instinct  must  wait 


SENSE  IN  THE   ANIMAL  KINGDOM.  333 

upon  the  vegetable,  for  the  animal  cannot  be  directly 
constructed  from  the  mineral ;  but  the  lower  organisms 
of  each  may  have  no  long  period  between ;  and  the 
animal  forms,  as  meliorating  conditions  open,  will 
rise  in  completeness  of  nerve-irritability,  and  muscu- 
lar excitement,  and  conscious  sensation,  and  directed 
loco-motion,  to  their  higher  gradations. 

The  distinctive  sentient  organization  is  essentially 
in  the  irritability  of  the  nervous  system,  and  the  whole 
bodily  structure,  with  its  varied  organs  and  members, 
is  determined  in  consistency  with  the  nervous  arrange- 
ment. The  centres  of  nervous  irritability  are  the 
ganglionic  portions. 

A  ganglion  is  an  ash-gray  mass  of  unequal  cells, 
irregularly  rounded  in  their  single  outlines,  and  im- 
bedded in  a  granular  matter  which  fills  the  inter- 
spaces. Filaments  of  a  dull  white  color  extend  out 
from  the  gray  ganglia,  and  constitute  the  fibrous 
tissue  of  the  nervous  system.  The  filamentary  often 
interfuse  or  envelop  the  ganglionic  portions,  and  the 
fibres  go  ofi"  from  the  ganglia  in  bundles  to  their  com- 
municating parts  of  the  body.  The  bundles  divide, 
branch  off,  and  inosculate  with  other  bundles  in  their 
course,  but  the  single  fibre  maintains  its  own  con- 
tinuity throughout.  They  are  of  two  kinds,  and  sub- 
serve two  purposes;  one  bringing  communications 
to  the  ganglion,  and  is  an  afferent  nerve,  the  other 
carrying  an  executive  communication  from  the  gangli- 
on, and  is  an  efferent  nerve.  The  ganglia  have  broader 
tissues  of  connection  also,  and  which  are  known  as 
commissures,  and  through  which  the  system  has  ac- 


334  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

cordant  sympathy  and  activity.  This  nervous  ar- 
rangement has  its  stages  from  incipiency  to  maturity. 
Close  upon  the  primitive  vegetable  algce,  and  diato- 
macea^  come  the  protozoa  and  infusorial  animalcur 
Icb;  and  as  vegetation  rises  from  unicellular  form  to 
complete  root,  stem,  and  leafy  branches,  so  the  animal 
forms  rise  in  gradation  through  all  the  sub-kingdoms. 

The  lowest  subdivision  of  the  animal  kingdom,  in 
its  higher  forms  of  sentient  life,  has  five  ganglia  en- 
circling a  mouth,  and  connected,  by  their  commis- 
sures, with  afferent  or  sensor  nerve,  and  efferent  or 
motor  nerve ;  and  the  whole  division  is  known  as 
Badiata,  with  its  protozoa  sexless,  and  senseless  ex- 
cept in  touch  and  taste.  Then  come  the  Mollusca  of 
higher  nervous  organization,  just  touching  the  point 
of  possession  for  all  the  special  senses  with  the  most 
advanced  species,  and  yet  the  best  only  slightly  awake 
to  sentient  consciousness.  The  Articulata  rise  to  a 
symmetrical  arrangement  of  ganglia  in  a  mid-line  of 
the  body,  and  side-branches  for  moving  members  on 
each  side ;  and  then  we  come  to  the  complete  animal 
structure  in  the  Vertebrata,  with  its  classes  of  Fish, 
Eeptile,  Fowl,  and  Mammifer.  Here,  at  last,  is  the 
Brain  with  cerebrum  and  cerebellum,  at  the  head  of 
the  spinal  cord  of  anterior  and  posterior  portions,  and 
the  sensor  and  motor  nerves  in  their  connections  with 
the  surface  to  the  limbs,  and  the  special  sense-organs. 
Connected  with  these,  through  the  sensorium,  are  the 
sympathetic  and  pneuraogastric  nerves  for  controlling 
digestion,  circulation,  and  respiration.  As  there  is 
more  or  less  air  in  the  lungs,  blood  in  the  heart,  or 


^l 


THE  ^ 


SENSE   IN   THE   ANIMAL   KING] 


UITT7ERSITY 


food  in  the  stomach,  so  respiration,  pulsation,  secre- 
tion, and  peristaltic  motion,  are  quickened  or  retarded. 

Here  is  the  full  arrangement  for  stimulating  and 
directing  nervous  irritability;  and  the  method  of 
movement  is  always  direct  at  first  in  the  afferent, 
and  then  reflex  in  the  efferent  nerves.  Not  only  is 
the  building  up  of  the  nervous  system  instinctive, 
but  very  much  of  the  nervous  action  in  the  organism 
is  wholly  in  unconsciousness.  Digestion,  circulation, 
secretion,  in  their  healthy  action,  are  all  below  con- 
sciousness, and  wholly  involuntary  ;  and  though  we 
may,  temporarily,  repress  respiration,  and  become 
conscious  of  partial  control  of  our  breath,  yet  soon 
the  instinctive  impulse  will  control  and  force  down 
all  factitious  resolution.  Even  the  special  senses 
often  guide  the  action  in  the  absence  of  all  conscious 
recognition.  Habitual  movements,  activity  in  rev- 
erie, and  the  strange  and  sometimes  dangerous  feats 
of  somnambulism,  are  all  guided  by  sense-impressions, 
though  destitute  of  conscious  volition.  The  vege- 
table-instinct is  mere  spontaneous  want,  ever  going 
out  and  not  back.  The  sense-instinct  has  nerve 
irritability,  working  direct  and  reflex  in  its  organ- 
ism in  mere  spontaneous  activity,  leaving  no  recog- 
nized traces  in  the  ganglionic  centres.  Much  of  ani- 
mated activity  is  merely  sense-instinct. 

Rising  from  simpler  to  more  complex  nerve-organ- 
isms, we  have  ganglionic  centres  held  in  connection 
by  their  commissures,  and  the  whole  acting  in  con- 
cert: and  then  we  find  one  ganglion  as  an  organic 
centre    regulating  all   its   subservient   ganglia,   and 


336  KNOWLEDGE   OF  CREATION. 

each  organic  centre  supervising  others,  and  there- 
by enabling  one  sense  to  correct  others ;  and  in  the 
highest  sub-kingdom  of  the  vertebrates,  and  its  high- 
est class  of  mammals,  we  have  the  perfection  of  sense- 
regulation  in  a  central  sensorium,  and  in  this  a  central 
coordinating  ganglion,  that  may  recognize  and  regu- 
late all  nerve-irritability  which  comes  within  the 
general  sensorium,  and  give  a  unity  of  conscious 
intelligence  and  sentient  agency  to  the  individual. 
The  spinal  cord  sends  its  fibres  in  striated  lines  up 
through  all  the  cerebral  portion;  here,  again,  are  the 
two  hemispheres  of  the  cerebrum  with  their  gangli- 
onic convolutions,  and  the  cerebellum  with  its  gangli- 
onic envelope ;  and  then,  in  the  most  central  position 
possible  for  spinal  cord,  cerebrum,  and  cerebellum, 
is  a  distinct  ganglion  known  as  that  of  the  tuber- 
annulare,  which  experiment  has  shown  is  the  co- 
ordinating ganglion  of  all  ganglia.  Other  portions 
of  the  brain  may  be  disturbed  or  removed  in  some 
animals,  especially  some  birds,  and  life  still  continue, 
but  with  deranged  sentient  activity  according  to  the 
respective  point  of  injury ;  but  if  the  tuber-annulare 
be  undisturbed,  sensation,  and  motion,  and  directing 
judgment,  may  recover  from  the  shock  of  amputation 
to  their  normal  activity ;  yet  when  this  ganglion  is 
broken  up,  and  the  rest  of  the  brain  left  uninjured,  the 
vital  functions  may  a  while  instinctively  operate,  but 
consciousness  and  voluntary  motion  cease  from  all  man- 
ifestation, and  every  sentient  function  is  paralyzed. 

We  may  thus  speculatively  determine  the  mode  of 
sentient   consciousness,  and   all   animal   intelligence. 


SENSE   IN  THE   ANIMAL  KINGDOM.  337 

The  nervous  organism  gives  occasion  for  central 
direct  and  reflex  irritability;  one  centre  can  have 
its  communion  with  others  in  the  common  sensorium ; 
and  one  coordinating  centre  is  occasion  for  supervis- 
ing, and  distinguishing,  and  in  this  consciously  recog- 
nizing, every  impression  which  is  made  on  the  sen- 
sorium. The  life-instinct  in  one  part  of  the  organism 
catches  its  own  agency  in  another  part,  and  as  feeling 
reciprocates  feeling  in  the  common  sensorium,  so  in 
the  coordinating  centre  the  life-instinct  wakes  in  sen- 
tiency,  and  comes  to  conscious  recognition  of  nerve- 
irritation. 

Full  provision  is  here  for  all  sense-affections,  and 
capability  to  distinguish  and  define  them  and  bring 
them  within  conscious  apprehension.  Instinct  at  once 
guides  itself  by  sense,  as  a  deeper  instinct  had  guided 
in  forming  the  nerve-organism ;  and  experience  soon 
begins  learning  how  phenomena  are  grouped  and  how 
they  succeed  each  other,  and  therein  a  judgment  ac- 
cording to  sense  opens.  The  brute  retains,  and  asso- 
ciates according  to  retained  experience  ;  and  the  parts 
of  the  groups  and  successions,  that  have  been  invari- 
ably together  are  the  predicates  of  which  the  group 
or  the  series  is  the  subject.  Experience  finds  agree- 
able and  disagreeable  sensations,  and  from  this  all 
animal  appetites  and  desires  awaken.  These  prompt  to 
executive  movement  in  gratifying  or  in  shunning,  and 
a  brute-will,  ever  as  highest  happiness  dictates,  is 
called  up  in  exercise.  Comparison  and  contrast,  asso- 
ciation and  abstraction,  analysis  and  combination,  can 
22 


338  KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 

all  go  as  far  as  sense  has  preceded,  and  the  brnte 
makes  his  inductions  and  conclusions  according  to  his 
experience.  Some  species  of  animals  have  extraor- 
dinary practical  sagacity.  A  fox,  about  two  thirds 
grown,  was  so  chained  as  to  permit  his  descent  to 
the  bottom  of  a  burrow  made  for  him.  The  fowls 
were  picking  up  the  corn  which  dropped  from  the 
cart  on  its  unloading,  when  an  ear  of  corn  tumbled 
from  the  basket  and  fell  within  his  reach.  He  sud- 
denly caught  and  carried  it  within  his  burrow.  Awa- 
kened curiosity  led  the  men  to  watch  what  a  fox 
might  do  with  corn.  He  was  seen  to  nibble  off  a  few 
kernels  at  the  mouth  of  his  hole,  and  returning  the 
ear,  he  stealthily  lay  back  in  concealment.  But  no 
sooner  did  the  chicken  pick  his  corn  than  the  fox 
picked  the  chicken,  and  to  save  the  poultry  they  were 
forced  to  uncover  the  burrow  and  take  the  ear  of 
corn  away.  This  case,  among  other  instances  of  brute 
intelligence  scarcely  less  striking,  has  in  it  abstrac- 
tion, and  generalization,  and  logical  conclusion  from 
sense-data,  followed  by  executive  action  with  design, 
in  the  end  of  motive,  as  completely  as  in  the  adapta- 
tion of  means  in  human  economy.  But  the  judgment 
is  wholly  within  sense-experience.  It  is  conclusion 
from  former  observation  of  the  order  of  occurring 
facts,  but  with  no  insight  of  reason  which  catches 
the  connecting  bond  that  holds  the  facts  necessarily 
together.  Uniformity  of  experience  induces  conclu- 
sion and  designed  action,  but  there  is  no  attainment 
of  a  universal  principle  determining  the  order  of  ex- 
perience, nor  of  a  moral  imperative  which  must  con- 


REASON  IN  HUMANITY.  339 

trol  appetitive  indulgence.  The  cunning  fox  can 
inductively  pliilosopbize  as  really  as  the  man,  but  he 
cannot  get  truth  beyond  sense  and  speculatively  phi- 
losophize. All  arises  in  organized  nerve-irritability, 
and  all  vanishes  when  the  nerve-organism  is  dissolved. 

THE  REIGN  OF   REASON  IN  HUMANITY. 

The  vegetable  kingdom  is  ruled  by  the  mere  life- 
instinct,  the  animal  kingdom  is  ruled  by  conscious 
sensation,  but  its  highest  intelligence  rests  in  what 
has  appeared  in  experience.  There  is  nothing  to  rise 
above  experience  and  comprehend  the  universe,  much 
less  to  recognize  the  God  of  the  universe  as  absolute 
Creator  and  Governor.  What  we  hava  in  these  two 
kingdoms  of  organic  existence  must  be  a  preparation 
only  for  something  further.  Sentient  being  has  in  it 
no  rights  of  sovereignty,  and  rules  only  by  the  neces- 
sities of  nature  as  already  constituted.  Its  sensibility 
is  made  for  it,  and  the  means  for  pleasure  or  pain 
are  put  about  it,  and  the  process  to  its  highest  happi- 
ness is  a  fixed  destiny  within  it,  and  there  is  no  alter- 
native in  the  casb,  but  the  sense-activity  must  put 
itself  through  the  course  which  opens  before  it.  In 
attaining  its  end  of  enjoyment  in  the  highest  practi- 
cable degree,  it  knows  only  a  perpetual  subserviency 
to  the  fixed  relations  of  nature  which  determine  for  it 
how  only  it  may  be  happy,  with  no  known  rights  by 
which  he  may  in  personality  govern  himself  and  attain 
conscious  dignity  and  self-respect. 

It  is  as  clear  that  the  intrinsic  excellency  which  in- 


340  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

spires  dignity  and  demands  respect  is  not  in  sense, 
and  can  never  be  a  development  of  it,  as  it  was  that 
life  was  not  in  force,  and  could  never  come  out  of  it. 
Sense  only  prompts  to  conscious  action  throngli  de- 
sire, and  its  highest  good  is  gratified  appetite,  and  it 
is  not  thus  possible  that  the  good  of  satisfying  an  im- 
perative should  come  in  to  its  experience.  There  is 
nothing  in  it  that  can  make  anything  due  to  it,  and 
hence  we  can  say  nothing  of  duty  about  it.  It  can 
assert  no  rights  and  feel  no  claims.  That  it  should 
come  to  conscious  dignity  and  self-respect,  it  must 
have  that  which  has  intrinsic  excellence  superinduced 
upon  it.  In  no  other  possible  way  can  the  animal  rise 
to  conscious  sovereignty  over  its  own  agency  than  by 
an  endowment  of  reason.  In  the  light  of  reason  he 
can  then  say  when  he  ought  to  be  happy,  and  when 
he  ought  to  suffer.  But  from  no  quarter  can  this  en- 
dowment come  except  from  the  creative  source  in  the 
Absolute.  It  has  been  expressed  in  every  kingdom, 
mineral,  vegetable,  and  animal;  but  in  neither  has 
it  been  a  conscious  possession,  and  thus  in  neither  has 
there  been  anything  which  might  wear  the  crown  or 
hold  the  sceptre  of  sovereign  authority.  So  far  as 
we  have  yet  contemplated  it,  the  created  universe 
has  nothing  in  it  which  may  rule  itself,  or  rule  others 
in  its  own  right,  and  can  stand  only  amid  the  necessi- 
tated connections  of  nature. 

There  must  here  be  done  just  what  revelation  de- 
clares man's  Creator  did  —  give  to  him  a  living  soul 
in  a  peculiar  way,  distinguishing  his  life  from  the 
merely  sentient  animal  life.     As  he  did  not  to  the  ani- 


REASON   IN   HUMANITY.  341 

inal,  God  breathed  into  Adam  the  breath  of  life,  and 
this  breathing  his  living  soul  into  him  made  him  a 
spiritual  intelligence  distinct  from  all  brute-percep- 
tion. "  There  is  a  spirit  in  man,  and  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Almighty  giveth  them  understanding." 
(Job  xxxii.  8.)  Both  plant  and  animal  live  as  organiz- 
ing instinct,  and  the  animal  life  has  conscious  sentien- 
cy ;  but  only  in  the  supernatural  inspiration  of  reason 
is  man  elevated  to  the  prerogatives  and  responsibili- 
ties of  spiritual  life  and  action.  The  sentient  soul  of 
Adam  took  within  itself  also  the  rational  spirit  which 
God's  inspiration  superinduced,  and  in  this  super- 
natural endowment  man  stands  above  nature  in  the 
likeness  of  the  Deity.  Instinctive  life  and  sentient 
soul  belong  to  nature,  but  rational  spirit  crowns  na- 
ture, and  of  right  takes  dominion  over  it. 

As  creative  origination  in  an  outer  expression,  there 
is  nothing  peculiar  in  this  divine  endowment  of  man 
with  reason  to  distinguish  it  from  other  creative  acts, 
except  as  it  is  an  impartation  of  the  Divine  Image. 
Material  and  ethereal  forces  originate  in  God,  and  are 
put  out  from  him  in  overt  expression  by  his  immedi- 
ate creative  act,  but  they  are  not  in  his  likeness. 
God  is  not  force,  neither  antagonist  nor  diremptive, 
though  he  is  the  direct  Maker  of  them  both.  And  so 
both  instinctive  and  sentient  life  find  their  origina- 
tion in  outer  expression  direct  from  the  Creator's 
hand,  but  they  bring  with  them  no  likeness  to  him,  for 
God  is  neither  instinctive  want  nor  sentient  prompt- 
ing. And  so,  in  the  same  way  of  direct  production 
and  expression,  the  rationality  of  man  is  immediately 


342  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

from  God's  creativ^e  agency,  and  is  his  product  in 
man  as  truly  as  force  in  nature,  and  life  in  plants, 
and  sense  in  animals  ;  but  here  the  created  product 
comes,  bearing  the  very  image  and  superscription  of 
the  Creator.  The  finite  rational  spirit  is  not  God, 
but  as  really  an  outer  created  expression  .from  God  as 
force,  or  life,  or  sense ;  only  that  the  former  is  like, 
while  ^he  latter  are  unlike,  the  Maker.  The  manifest- 
ing in  outer  expression  is  the  creating  work,  and  this 
is  alike  to  be  contemplated  in  all  creative  acts  as 
originating  in  God. 

This  supernatural  endowment  of  sentient  life  with 
reason  is  an  impartation  from  God  of  a  self-intelligent 
and  selfdetermining  essence,  which,  as  superinduced 
upon  life  and  sense,  is  competent  to  use  them  in  its 
Own  ends  and  purposes.  The  formative  instinct  is 
made  unconsciously  to  do  the  work  of  reason  in  the 
organization  of  the  human  body,  making  it  to  comport 
with  the  dignity  and  designs  of  the  human  spirit. 
Where  reason  is,  instinct  and  sense  both  act  under 
higher  control  and  for  further  ends  than  the  mere 
organism,  or  than  the  sense-gratification.  When,  in 
the  absence  of  reason,  the  sentient  life-instinct  con- 
structed the  nervous  arrangement  of  central  ganglion 
and  communicating  filaments,  and  in  the  nerve-irrita- 
bility controlled  the  unconscious  sense-instinct,  and 
then  through  the  coordinating  sensorium  managed 
the  special  senses  in  conscious  direction  to  the  ends 
of  sense-gratification,  it  did  nothing  that  reached  be- 
yond the  ends  of  the  organism  itself  and  its  appeti- 
tive indulgence,  and  was  held  wholly  subservient  to 


REASON  IN  HUMANITY.  343 

mere  organic  preservation  and  enjoyment;  but  the 
rational  spirit  knows  what  is  due  to  its  own  dignity, 
and  works  for  the  ends  of  self-approbation  and  the 
respect  of  others.  When  the  organism  dissolves, 
sense  vanishes;  and  even  while  the  nerve-organism 
lasts,  the  elementary  composition  and  conscious  ac- 
tivities are  perpetually  passing  and  recurring,  and 
so  both  sense-existence  and  sense-experience  are  a 
continual  flow  of  appearance  and  disappearance,  with 
nothing  steadfast.  Such  fleeting  show  cannot  com- 
port with  nor  satisfy  the  intrinsic  dignity  of  the  abid- 
ing spirit.  Animal  life  merely  both  may  and  must 
exist  as  fleeting,  renewing  wasted  forces  and  de- 
parted indulgences  that  can  remain  for  no  two  mo- 
ments the  same  ;  but  the  life  of  reason  should  and 
must  be  abiding  in  principle  and  purpose.  When 
superinduced  upon  the  life-instinct,  it  infuses  its 
energy  through  the' living  ethereal  forces  it  inhabits, 
and  makes  them  to  be  for  it  an  abiding  tabernacle  as 
a  "  spiritual  body ;  "  and  when  superinduced  upon 
sense,  it  fixes  the  material  forces  in  which  sense 
resides  in  balanced  and  unchanging  combination,  and 
the  perpetuated  sentiency  becomes  a  perduring  soul 
in  a  changeless  soul-body.  For  all  the  ends  of  sus- 
tenance and  growth,  and  organic  perception,  and 
reproduction,  the  flowing  assimilated  forces,  which 
come  on  and  pass  off  from  this  perduring  basis  as 
the  soul-body,  supply  every  need;  while  constantly 
the  rational  spirit  in  its  spiritual  body  holds  both  its 
own  ethereal  forces  steadfast,  and  reaches  over  the 
material  forces  of  the  soul-body,  holding  them  stable, 


344  KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 

and  keeping  both  spirit-body  and  soul-body  in  firm 
alliance.  The  spirit-essence  in  the  spiritual  body  is, 
in  human  life,  never  "  unclothed,"  but  "  clothed  upon  " 
by  the  material  soul-body. 

This  alHance  of  soul  and  spirit  constitutes  Humanity. 
However  in  other  worlds  spirit  may.  be  -^  clothed 
upon"  in  corporeal  existence,  in  this  our  world  it  is 
by  superinducing  reason  upon  sense,  and  the  reason 
in  its  body  of  ethereal  forces  incarnates  the  spiritual 
in  the  material  basis  of  all  sentient  life  as  soul-body ; 
and  such  union  of  soul  in  soul-body  and  spirit  in 
spirit-body  constitutes  the  human  being,  man.  Not 
sentient  soul  and  rational  spirit  incorporeal  constitute 
man ;  for  except  as  abiding  in  substantial  force,  either 
ethereal  or  material,  neither  spirit  nor  soul  can  have 
expression  away  from  their  creative  source ;  but 
spirit  in  ethereal  and  soul  in  material  corporeity 
constitute  humanity,  and  the  two  combined  in  one 
by  the  energy  of  the  reason  which  presides  over 
both.  While  the  conscious  disposing  of  the  spirit 
in  voluntary  execution  of  its  end  in  life  is  a  moral 
power,  standing  in  its  own  responsibility,  the  in- 
stinctive, unconscious  agency  which  carries  on  the 
vital  functions  is  involuntary  and  irresponsible,  though 
spontaneously  guided  by  reason. 

In  the  sphere  of  instinctive  working,  the  reason  in 
the  human  spontaneously  makes  many  new  modifica- 
tions and  arrangements  for  its  own  ends  and  uses, 
which  mere  animal  sense  does  not  want,  and  which 
brute  consciousness  could  not  use.  Organs  of  speech 
are  fashioned  in  flexibility  for  sounds,  and  in  facility 


REASON  IN  HUMANITY.  345 

for  tones,  expressive  of  thongbt  and  sentiment  in 
man,  wherein  no  brute  participates,  and  for  which 
animal  life  can  find  no  occasion  for  utterance.  The 
human  hand  is  formed  in  the  interest  of  reason,  un- 
like the  corresponding  member  for  brute  instrumen- 
tality, readily  becoming  skilled  to  work  the  ideals  of 
human  invention  on  to  solid  matter,  whether  of  the 
useful  or  beautiful  creations  of  genius.  The  erect 
stature  is  given  man,  whereby  he  attains  and  holds 
dominion  over  the  animal  kingdom,  subduing  nature, 
cultivating  the  ground,  and  distributing  the  produc- 
tions for  universal  consumption.  And  yet  more  won- 
derfully, this  spontaneity  of  reason  works  its  own 
stability  out  in  expression  on  the  human  organism 
in  its  erect  stature,  self-poised  attitude,  symmetrical 
figure,  and  its  authority  on  the  open  brow,  and  the 
light  of  its  own  majesty  shining,  in  every  feature. 
The  inner  spirit  uses  the  ethereal  forces  of  its  spirit- 
ual body,  spontaneously,  in  building  up  the  tabernacle 
for  the  sentient  soul,  that  itself  may  control  and  use 
the  sentient  life  for  higher  purposes  than  any  animal 
consciousness  can  recognize.  Such  infusion  of  the  ra- 
tional spirit  in  its  spiritual  body  everywhere  through 
the  sentient  soul  in  its  soul-body,  and  this  in  the  in- 
stinctive construction  of  the  human  organism  for  ra- 
tional action  and  moral  probation,  makes  a  pecuHar  be- 
ing, so  far  as  we  know  from  observation  or  revelation 
unlike  any  other,  and  is  the  distinctively  human,  which 
the  Absolute  Reason  knew  it  behooved  him  to  create. 
This  comprehending  bond  of  the  spiritual  holding 
all  the  sentient  within  it  determines  human  Individu- 


346  KNOWLEDGE    OF    CREATION. 

ality,  As  before  seen,  that  which  the  insight  of  rea- 
son detects  running  through  the  manifold,  and  shut- 
ting them  together  in  one,  individualizes  the  many, 
making  of  them  an  indivisible  single,  inclusive  of 
itself  and  exclusive  of  all  else.  So  with  the  force  of 
chemical  combination  in  the  mineral  kingdom,  the 
life-instinct  in  the  vegetable  kingdom,  and  the  senti- 
ent irritability  in  the  animal  kingdom.  In  each  the 
individuals  are  determined  by  their  peculiar  bond 
which  runs  through  and  holds  the  manifold  in  a 
single.  And  here  this  infused  bond  of  the  spiritual 
through  all  the  sensual  determines  an  individuality 
of  its  own  exclusively.  The  inbreathed  spirit  from 
God  in  Adam  held  at  once  the  substantial  ethereal 
and  material  forces  of  both  spirit-  and  soul-bodies  in 
one,  and  had  control  of  all  sentient  appetite  in  execu- 
tive gratification,  and  in  this  began  an  experience 
and  a  history  of  his  own ;  one  and  single,  distinct 
both  from  his  Maker  and  any  other  creature.  Put 
by  God's  inspiration  into  sense,  and  holding  that 
sense  in  comprehension,  it  became  the  individual 
Adam,  inclusive  of  himself  as  sense  and  spirit,  and 
exclusive  of  all  other.  Subject  still  to  God,  and  re- 
sponsible to  God,  Adam  was  sole  individuality  in 
himself;  originating  his  own  action  in  the  disposing 
of  his  own  spirit,  and  using  his  own  sense,  so  that  the 
acts  were  Adam's  acts,  and  neither  the  acts  of  the 
Creator  nor  any  other  creature.  That  rational  spirit 
put  within  and  infused  through  that  sentient  soul  con- 
stituted the  first  human  individual,  shutting  his  own 
in,  and  shutting  all  other  individuality  out. 


REASON  IN  HUMANITY.  347 

And  not  only  was  Adam  so  made  by  God  at  first 
in  his  one  inclusive  and  exclusive  individuality,  but 
every  descendant  in  sexual  generation  has  rational 
spirit  diffused  through  and  binding  its  own  sense  in 
unity,  making  an  individuality  of  its  own,  distinct 
from  God,  and  Adam,  and  every  other  descendant. 
All  have  humanity  as  soul  and  spirit,  but  each  its  indi- 
viduality as  such  a  soul  held  in  its  own  spirit ;  and  so 
Adam's  posterity  stand  out  in  human  Individuality. 

The  same  substantial  forces,  held  together  by  the 
spirit,  determine  human  Identity.  The  river  is  the 
same  only  as  new  waters  flow  on  in  the  same  way 
and  the  same  place.  The  tree  is  the  same,  from 
germination  to  maturity,  only  as  new  particles  have 
been  assimilated  in  constant  succession  by  the  per- 
petually working  life-instinct.  When  the  life  goes 
out  in  plant  or  animal,  the  identity  is  lost.  But  in 
the  human  individual  there  is  the  spirit  holding  in 
unity  the  same  living  ethereal  forces  as  the  spiritual 
body,  and  the  same  material  forces  as  the  permanent 
basis  of  the  organic  elements  which  come  and  go  in 
the  earthy  body,  and  which  permanent  is  the  un- 
changing soul-body ;  and  this  spiritual  holding  in 
unity  the  same  spirit-body  and  the  same  soul-body, 
gives  an  identity  to  the  human  which  can  be  deter- 
mined for  no  other  individuality.  It  holds  on  the 
same  through  all  vicissitudes  of  the  mortal  state,  and 
will  still  perdure  when  all  sense-affections  and  sex- 
distinctions  shall  have  passed  away. 

The  rational  spirit  secures  for  the  sentient  soul  in 
the   soul-body  assured  Immortality.     The  animal  in- 


348  KNOWLEDGE    OF   CREATION. 

dividuality  is  determined  in  the  Continual  life-instinct 
working  its  new  assimilations  and  old  eliminations 
through  the  changing  body ;  this  life-instinct  con- 
stantly holding  its  organic  construction  in  form  and 
measure  about  itself,  and  retaining  and  expressing 
its  irritability  and  conscious  sensibility  through  each 
successive  moment.  The  living. bond  determines  the 
individuality,  and  the  continued  form,  though  made 
of  perpetually  passing  elements,  is  the  animal  iden- 
tity. And  man,  so  far  as  animal  only,  has  only  the 
individuality  of  being  held  together  by  the  one  work- 
ing life-instinct,  and  the  identity  of  perpetuated  or- 
ganic form  and  proportion,  through  his  successive 
development.  So  with  his  whole  organism  of  sense- 
nutrition  and  sex-distinction,  which  are  '^  of  the  earth, 
earthy,"  and  dissoluble  as  the  brute  individuality  and 
identity.  As  above  stated,  the  exhausting  life-action 
and  nature's  melioration  for  higher  existences  de- 
mand dissolution  as  earnestly  as  the  previous  con- 
struction. When  the  organism  has  reached  its  end, 
the  animality  has  finished  its  work,  and  in  the  certain 
dissolution  the  same  sentient  individual  exists  no  more. 
But  man  has  rational  spirit  superinduced  upon  the 
life-instinct  and  conscious  sensation, .and  this  spirit 
has  been  set  to  its  fleshly  abode  that  it  may  control 
sense  and  hold  every  appetite  subservient  to  spirit- 
ual dignity  and  integrity ;  and  when  having  thus 
gained  dominion  over  sense,  there  comes  at  length 
the  claim  of  Ireedom  from  the  perpetual  warfare ;  or 
if  having  given  up  to  carnal  indulgence,  there  comes 
the  equally  resistless  claim  that  it  meet  its  deserved 


REASON   IN   HUMANITY.  349 

shame  and  reproach  for  its  sensuality.  In  either 
case,  sentient  sonl  and  rational  spirit  have  been  in 
communion  in  the  period  of  probation,  and  they  must 
stand  together,  from  the  reason  of  the  case,  in  the 
coming  retributions.  The-  individual  spirit  can  be 
known  only  as  the  permanent  dweller  in  the  body 
of  ethereal  forces,  and  the  individual  sentient  soul 
can  be  known  only  in  its  body  of  material  forces,  and 
so  the  spirit  has  held  steadfast  its  spiritual  body,  and 
infused  through  the  sentient  soul  it  has  also  held  the 
soul-body  steadfast  in  its  balanced  material  forc.es. 
However  the  earthy  animal  organism  may  change  or 
dissolve,  its  material  basis  of  substantial  forces  abides 
for  the  soul,  and  is  held  identically  the  same  forever. 
The  soul-body  may  cast  off  all  its  earthy  trappings  in 
animal  death,  and  may  be  separated  from  the  spirit- 
body  in  human  death,  but  the  soul-body  itself  cannot 
lose  either  its  individuality  or  identity.  The  spirit 
in  the  spirit-body  demands  its  reunion,  and  it  must  be 
kept  in  its  integrity.  That  spirit^ody  is  "  a  house 
not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens,"  and  the 
"  earnest  desire  of  the  soul  to  be  clothed  upon  with 
the  house  which  is  from  heaven  "  must  be  gratified. 
The  spirit-body  is  the  sole  medium  for  the  spirit's 
distinction  from,  or  its  communion  with,  God,  tlie 
Father  of  all  spirits,  and  that  it  has  been  linked  with 
soul,  and  soul-body,  and  fixed  its  permanent  disposi- 
tion and  character  in  that  connection,  fixes  also  the 
certainty  of  their  eternal  communion  in  the  world 
that  follows  all  probation. 

This  pervading  of  sense   by  rational  spirit  deter- 


350  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

mines  human  Personality.  Personality  in  God  is 
independent  of  all  conditions  from  nature  ;  personal- 
ity in  angelic  spirits  has  its  connections  in  an  un- 
known nature  ;  our  natural  world  has  no  personality ; 
man  alone  has  personality  conditioned  in  known  nat- 
ural connections.  Material  nature  has  the  necessitat- 
ed connections  of  mechanical  force ;  vegetable  nature 
has  the  spontaneity  of  instinctive  want,  but  no  alter- 
native in  consciousness  ;  animal  nature  has  conscious 
appetite,  but  no  alternative  to  a  movement  towards 
what  it  deems  highest  gratification ;  and  so  below 
man  there  are  only  things  governed  by  the  necessary 
connections  in  nature  above  them,  and  no  persons 
obedient  to  a  voice  within  in  spite  of  all  without. 

Man,  in  so  far  forth  as  he  is  merely  sentient,  is 
animal,  with  animal  appetites,  and  subject  to  act  un- 
der the  condition  of  finding  no  alternative  to  the 
execution  of  the  strongest  propensity.  But  the  sen- 
tient is  one  side  only  of  the  human ;  man  is  rational 
spirit  as  well  as  sentient  soul,  and  the  human  is 
essentially  and  peculiarly  this  union  of  sense  and 
spirit.  We  know  but  only  the  lower  half  of  man,  and 
that  which  is  wholly  within  nature,  when  we  deem 
him  the  mere  agent  for  attaining  his  highest  happi- 
ness. The  better  half  of  man  is  his  reason,  which  is 
agency  for  attaining  highest  dignity.  Reason  is  it- 
self spiritual,  supernatural,  competent  to  stand  against 
force,  and  instinctive  want,  and  sentient  appetite,  and 
hold  solely  and  persistently  to  its  own  conscious  rea- 
sonableness. Reason  knows  itself;  its  own  intrinsic 
^^cellency  ;  and  thus  what  is  due  to  itself  for  its  own 


REASON  IN   HUMANITY.  351 

sake,  aside  from  any  appetite.  Nature's  forces,  or 
instincts,  or  appetites  may  urge  in  any  direction,  and 
with  any  strength,  but  the  spirit  may  refuse  all  com- 
pliance, on  the  sole  consideration  that  its  own  integ- 
rity is  lost  by  yielding.  Man,  endowed  with  reason 
above  nature,  may  look  nature  through  within  him- 
self and  without,  and  aside  from  all  adaptations  to 
want  and  appetite,  he  may  see  what  the  reason-idea, 
or  principle,  in  nature  is,  and  without  which  nature 
itself  could  not  so  have  been.  Among  these  Eternal 
Ideas  and  immutable  principles,  he  may  discriminate 
such  as  control  in  their  particular  sphere,  and  take 
such  as  an  ultimate  standard  each  in  its  respective 
sphere,  and  then  may  explore  and  comprehend  that 
sphere  in  the  light  of  that  principle  which  determines 
it.  So  far  as  such  contemplation  extends,  he  will 
know  that  whole  sphere,  not  merely  as  in  sense  it 
appears,  but  in  the  reason  of  the  case  why  it  should 
and  must  so  appear.  And  in  every  such  sphere  he 
may  stand  by  the  eternal  principle  he  attains,  and 
maintain  his  own  integrity  and  fidelity  to  it  in  spite 
of  any  opposing  force,  or  want,  or  appetite.  He  can 
free  himself  against  all  promptings  of  nature  in  such 
sphere, by  holding  to  the  determinate  and  eternal  truths 
of  such  sphere.  In  all  such  positions  he  has  spiritual 
freedom,  and  can  do  as  no  animal  can  —  overcome  na- 
ture, and  stand  on  the  dignity  and  honor  of  his  reason 
alone.  In  this,  man  is  Person  ;  other  than  a  thing  ;  and 
at  once  he  is  open  to  claims  and  responsibilities  which 
the  presence  of  no  force,  or  want,  or  appetite  can  annul. 
As  rational  Intelligence  in  any  or  all  of  these  dis- 


352  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

tinct  spheres,  the  man,  as  person,  is  Philosopher ;  and 
as  Actor  in  the  light  of  the  truths  in  any  or  all  of 
these  distinct  spheres,  he  is  free  Agent ;  and  in  the 
more  prominent  and  important  of  these  spheres  we 
may  contemplate  him  as  Philosopher  and  free  Agent 
•both  in  one.  We  stand  here  wholly  beyond  all  ani- 
mal experience,  and  in  a  region  where  Sense-knowing 
and  Sense-acting  are  utterly  irrelevant  and  imperti- 
nent ;  and  a  very  short  consideration  of  man,  in  these 
respective  spheres,  will  make  conspicuous  the  pre- 
rogatives and  responsibilities  which  put  him  above  all 
we  have  yet  speculatively  known  of  creation,  and 
make  him  to  be  truly  the  crowning  work  of  the 
Creator's  hand. 

That  may  be  known  as  Science  which  gathers  and 
classifies  facts  as  they  appear  in  experience ;  but  in 
this  there  is  nothing  of  the  insight  and  control  of  rea- 
son, and  hence  nothing  of  Philosophy,  nor  of  free 
Responsibility. 

Sense-experience  may  learn  what  appearances 
please  the  eye,  or  what  sounds  please  the  ear ;  and 
by  careful  study  and  trial  man  may  attain  the  skill  to 
inritate  nature  by  finding  and  applying  practical 
rules  for  copying  nature,  ^nd  so  far  he  might  know 
how  to  give  forms  or  tones  which  will  be  generally 
pleasing.  But  in  this  way  there  can  be  gained  noth- 
ing of  the  philosophy  or  of  the  freedom  which  belongs 
to  the  Fine  Arts-  The  reason  can  at  once  see  in  the 
forms  of  nature  the  living  sentiment  they  express, 
and  in  what  blended  forms  the  blended  sentiment  de- 
sired may  be  most  perfectly  and  fully  expressed ;  and 


REASON  IN  HUMANITY.  353 

such  forms  give  the  standard  for  beauty,  or  sublimity, 
and  become  a  universal  guide  for  taste  in  admiring, 
criticising,  or  executing  in  Art.  In  this  way  only 
can  one  be  artist  in  his  free  personality.  As  follow- 
ing the  agreeable  in  sense  and  copying  nature  by  it, 
he  is  bound  solely  by  the  fact  of  constitutional  sensi- 
bility and  the  tried  forms  presented  to  it,  and  he  can 
say  only  what  does  please,  while  the  reason  may  say 
what  should  please  both  him  and  all  others.  In  the 
insight  of  reason  the  true  artist  may  dispute  all  tastes 
but'  that  which  stands  conformed  to  the  Absolute 
Standard.  He  may  freely  guide  his  action,  and  make 
his  selection,  or  set  himself  to  the  execution,  in  a 
work  of  art,  by  the  reason's  ideal,  and  refuse  all  ap- 
peals to  any  sensibility  which  would  vitiate  the  taste, 
or  debase  the  reason  in  repudiating  the  pure  Ideal. 

So,  also,  in  Geometry  and  MechanicSj  the  reason 
sees  in  the  pure  diagrams  or  motions  the  truths  of 
which  they  are  the  symbol,  and  may  not  only,  like  the 
sense,  say  so  nature  does  appear ;  but  from  its  own 
insight  may  know,  what  no  sense  can,  that  in  the 
diagrams  projected  such  forces  nature  must  use  ;  and 
in  the  forces  nature  uses,  such  diagrams  her  move- 
ments must  make  ;  and  so  the  man  reads  the  meaning 
of  the  Maker  in  both  the  Earth  and  Heavens.  And 
hero,  too,  the  Philosopher  can  free  himself  from  any 
demands  the  sense-appearance  may  impose,  and  hold 
to  reason's  claim,  refusing  all  abatement  or  perver- 
sion, though  he  die  for  it. 

Still  more  specially,  by  the  endowment  of  reason 
23 


354  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

man  rises  into  the  pure  region  of  an  immutable  and 
free  Morality.  Animal  happiness  is  the  gratification 
of  an  animal  sensibility,  and  this  is  the  end  of  all 
sense,  that  the  highest  practicable  gratification  be 
secured.  The  sensibility  is  the  highest  endowment 
the^  animal  has,  and  its  gratification  is  the  highest 
good.  The  sensibility  is  a  thing  made,  and  the  law 
of  highest  Happiness  is  found  in  knowing  how  the 
sensibility  is  constituted,  and  then  avoiding  what 
pains,  and  attaining  and  applying  what  pleases  it. 
There  can  thus  be  no  immutable  rule  ;  for  a  sensi- 
bility can  be  variedly  constituted,  and  the  rule  must 
be  as  the  constituted  fact  is  found.  And  even  if  all 
sensibilities  were  found  alike,  this  could  not  give 
an  ultimate  rule ;  for  we  could  thence  only  know  that 
the  Maker  was  most  pleased  to  so  constitute  all  sen- 
sibilities, and  the  last  fact  thus  gained  would  be,  that 
the  Maker  finds  he  himself  has  such  a  sensibility  that 
he  must  so  make  other  sensibilities,  or  be  unhappy. 
The  last  we  here  find  is  still  a  fact  with  no  reason 
for  it.  We  have,  in  the  Maker  of  all  other  sensibili- 
ties, a  constitutional  sensibility  with  no  rule  to  de- 
termine it. 

Still  further,  a  sensibility  can  only  crave,  and,  never 
claim.  It  may  ask  favors,  but  can  never  demand 
dues.  Its  highest  end  is  gratification,  and  it  can 
never  attain  to  approbation.  Hence  the  possession  of 
a  conscience  is  impossible  to  a  sensibility.  Its  short- 
comings are  losses  of  happiness  only,  and  hence  to  it 
occasions  for  regret,  but  never  losses  of  respect,  and 
hence   can  never   give  compunctions  for  guilt.     No 


REASON  IN  HUMANITY.  355 

possible  elevation  of  a  rule  for  sense  can  rise  above 
prudence,  and  can  never  attain  to  an  imperative.  A 
sensibility  cannot  feel  obligation  in  itself,  nor  can 
reason  see  in  it  any  rights.  Out  of  a  sensibility  it  is 
impossible  that  there  should,  in  any  way,  be  derived 
a  morality. 

But  an  endowment  of  rationality  is  another  and 
much  more  exalted  good  than  being  constituted  with 
a  sensibility.  Here  is  an  intrinsic  excellency  with 
conferred  dignity ;  the  highest  which  the  Maker  can 
give  or  the  creature  receive  ;  even  the  very  image 
and  likeness  of  the  Creator. 

Sensibility  has  no  intrinsic  excellency,  and  so  no 
dignity,  and  is  merely  a  utility;  an  instrumental 
means  to  a  further  end,  and  worthless  except  in 
reference  to  that  end  beyond  itself  But  to  know  that 
reason  has  been  superinduced  upon  sense  is  at  the 
same  time  to  know  that  the  reason  should  rule  and 
the  sense  should  serve  ;  and  also  at  once  in  this  is 
seen,  that  gratified  sense  may  often  be  forbidden,  and 
that  all  happiness  must  be  reasonable  or  it  must  be  re- 
jected. And  the  present  denial  of  gratifying  sensibili- 
ty is  not  at  all  that  the  sensibihty  may  be  made  happi- 
er at  some  future  time,  but  that  reason  may  now  and 
ever  be  honored.  It  can  never  be  morality  to  say, 
"  I  do  this  that  1  may  be  happy ;  "  but  only  to  say, 
"  I  do  this  that  I  may  be  worthy." 

Nor  is  this  at  all  open  to  an  inconsiderate  objection 
that  such  ground  of  Morality  involves  the  absurdity 
of  making  "  the  highest  good  of  man  to  consist  in  his 
choosing   as   an  ultimate  end   his  own  choice  of  an 


356  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

ultimate  end."  (President  Hopkins's  Lectures  on 
Moral  Science,  p.  57.)  There  are  distinctions  of 
worthiness,  and  thus  of  good,  in  all  consideration  of 
Morality,  and  no  statement  should  be  permitted  to 
confound  them.  To  be  endowed  with  reason  is  a 
dignity  and  a  good ;  and  so  also  to  conform  to  reason 
is  a  dignity  and  a  good  ;  one  an  imparted  and  the 
other  an  attained  worthiness  and  good.  When  the 
man  goes  back  for  his  ultimate  rule,  he  sees  the  im- 
parted worthiness  and  good ;  and  when  he  turns 
forward  to  an  ultimate  end,  he  looks  at  an  attained 
worthiness  and  good  :  and  he  chooses  in  both  cases, 
and  with  no  absurdity  in  so  doing,  for  the  choices  are 
as  distinct  as  the  worthiness  and  the  good  in  the  two 
cases.  The  former  he  chooses  as  rule,  and  by  adopt- 
ing makes  it  his  maxim  for  life  ;  the  latter  he  chooses 
as  end,  and  by  conformity  establishes  integrity  of 
character.  Both  are  ultimate ;  the  former  in  the 
direction  of  origin,  the  latter  in  the  direction  of  con- 
summation ;  and  both  are  intrinsic,  as  thoroughly  in 
the  very  reason  of  the  case  ;  and  yet  they  are  in 
themselves  so  inherently  distinct  that  they  cannot 
become  identical,  and  if  logically  confounded  they 
confound  the  logic.  Both  these  forms  of  worthiness 
are  good  in  the  estimate  of  reason,  and  therein  wholly 
different  from  all  good  in  the  estimate  of  sensation ; 
and  the  proper  discrimination  is  kept  when  we  say 
of  the  two  former,  their  good  is  that  of  worthiness, 
and  of  all  forms  of  the  latter,  their  good  is  that  of 
happiness,  for  no  possible  happiness  could  compensate 
for  the  loss  of  either  distinction  of  worthiness.     The 


REASON  IN  HUMANITY.  357 

endowed  worthiness  must  be  in  order  that  the  attained 
worthiness  may  be,  but  the  possession  of  each  is 
invaluable  compared  with  anything  else  in  earth  or 
heaven  ;  and  if  the  endowment  be,  then  must  the 
attainment  be,  or  "  it  had  been  good  for  that  man  if 
he  had  not  been  born." 

The  affections  in  the  sensibility  and  those  in  the 
reason  may  both  be  known  aa/eeling ;  but  though  they 
receive  the  same  name,  they  are  themselves  essential- 
ly unlike.  The  sensibility  is  a  constituted  thing,  and 
has  its  constitutional  nature,  and  hence  all  its  feelings 
are  as  the  constitution  is  made  to  be.  In  many  things 
it  differs  in  one  man  from  another,  and  might  be  made 
in  each  different  from  all ;  and  hence  the  sense-feeling 
is  as  the  sense  happens  to  be  in  the  particular  subject, 
and  the  gratification  happens  accordingly,  and  so  the 
sense-gratification  may  properly  be  termed  Happiness. 
But  the  reason  is  not  made,  and  has  no  constitutional 
nature,  and  no  diffeience  of  feeling  for  different 
subjects.  It  cannot  be  conceived  to  have  feelings 
that  happen  to  it  in  any  way.  As  reason  is,  so  it 
necessarily  must  be,  and  as  its  feeling  is,  so  in  the 
conditions  they  must  have  been,  and  no  power  can 
change  it  or  them.  Were  reason  to  be  other  than  it 
is,  it  would  become  unreason ;  and  were  it^  feelings 
in  any  case  supposed  to  have  been  different  from 
what  in  that  case  they  were,  they  could  not  have 
been  the  feelings  of  reason.  There  is  no  nature,  and 
no  making  about  it ;  above  and  beyond  all  of  nature, 
reason  is  and  must  be  eternally  the  same.  When 
sense  loves  flesh,  it  might  have  been  constituted  to 


358  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

love  herbs ;  and  when  it  lives  happily  in  air,  it  might 
have  been  made  to  live  happily  in  water.  But  when 
reason  feels  obligation,  or  remorse,  or  selt-approbation, 
or  reverence,  it  cannot  be  conceived  that,  by  any 
possibility,  it  should  so  have  been  constituted  as  to 
have  there  felt  differently.  They  are  not  feelings 
that  can  happen  to  it,  from  some  essential  changes 
happening  to  be  made  in  it  ;  for  its  essence  is  abso- 
lutely changeless.  It  is  as  truly  ultimate  and  immuta- 
ble in  feeling,  as  in  knowing ;  and  as  ultimate  and 
immutable  in  willing,  as  in  knowing  and  feeling. 
It  is  supernatural,  and  hence  beyond  all  nature's 
changes ;  and  is  rule  for  all,  in  all  places  and  in  all 
periods.  The  strongest  obligation  possible  is,  that 
the  imperative  is  reasonable ;  and  the  highest  approba- 
tion possible  is,  that  reason  is  satisfied.  Authority 
can  have  its  investiture  from  nothing  other  than  rea- 
son, and  can  attach  its  claims  only  to  reason;  and 
can  fix  approbation  only  to  the  reasonable.  Man 
participates  in  all  this  not  as  sensible,  but  solely  as 
reasonable. 

In  the  last  place,  and  higher  than  all,  Man's  endow- 
ment of  reason  raises  him  to  the  sphere  of  Theology. 
Sense  can  know  nothing  of  God,  nor  in  anything  can 
it  be  brought  in  sympathy  and  communion  with  God 
in  any  one  of  his  attributes.  Animal  being  can 
neither  know  whence  it  comes  nor  whither  it  goes, 
and  may  only  possess  and  enjoy  what  has  been  given 
to  it.  When  sensibility  is  empty,  it  is  uneasy  ;  when 
fully  supplied,  it  rests  in  a  surfeit.  It  has  gladness 
in  its  fulness,  but  knows  neither  gratitude  for  sup- 


REASON  IN  HUMANITY.  359 

plies,  nor  reverence  or  respect  for  any  providential 
guarding  and  overruling.  But  the  impartation  of 
reason  to  man  capacitates  him  to  see,  in  the  things 
which  are  made,  the  thoughts  and  intentions  of  the 
Maker,  and  thereby  clearly  to  know  his  power  and 
wisdom  and  essential  Deity.  Both  that  God  is,  and 
what  God  is,  reason  reads  in  his  works.  Communica- 
tions made  through  any  appropriate  symbols  can  reach 
the  reason,  and  the  evidence  that  they  come  from 
God  reason  also  can  receive.  Neither  religious  faith 
nor  divine  worship  is  possible,  except  to  a  person 
endowed  with  reason ;  and  what  should  purport  to  be 
a  revelation,  opening  a  door  for  heavenly  communion, 
could  awaken  only  credulous  superstition  till  it  was 
brought  to  the  light  of  reason.  Any  declarations  it 
may  make  concerning  truths  beyond  the  reach  of 
finite  human  reason,  the  man  may  accept  on  the 
strength  of  the  divine  testimony ;  but  the  ground  of 
the  testimony  must  come  within  the  light  of  reason, 
and  then  the  message  declared  may  be  rationally  re- 
ceived, though  the  manner  how  that  truth  shall  be 
explained  may  yet  remain  in  utter  darkness. 

Reason,  thus,  prepares  man  for  both  natural  and 
revealed  religion,  and  gives  to  him  an  ultimate  stan- 
dard. "  There  l»e  gods  many,  and  lords  many;  "  and 
many  assumed  revelations;  but  wherein  they  differ, 
all  except  one  must  in  something  come  short  of  the 
full  claim  of  reason.  Only  that  assumed  religion, 
which  fills  the  claim  of  reason,  can  be  the  true  and 
safe  source  of  confidence.  That  the  Deity  on  which 
the  religion  rests  is  accordant  with  reason  will,  in  all 


360  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CREATION. 

cases,  constitute  the  very  ground  for  our  religious 
allegiance  and  devotion.  Not  any  gratification  of 
constitutional  sensibility  is  to  hold  us  in  his  service, 
but  the  conscientious  conviction  that  himself  and 
the  service  he  requires  are  entirely  reasonable.  No 
service  is  from  pious  love,  if  it  spring  not  more  from 
reverence  for  God's  reasonableness  than  fondness  for 
God's  kindness.  Finite  reason  finds  in  the  Absolute 
Reason  the  ultimate  rule  which  is  to  settle  for  us, 
both  the  God  we  must  choose  and  the  service  we 
must  render,  if  we  would  gain  our  own  and  God's 
approbation. 

So  endowed  with  reason,  man  is  competent  to 
study  nature,  live  in  society,  and  commune  with 
God.  Creation  is  about  him  to  be  learned  and  be 
used :  he  is  in  the  midst  of  his  fellows  to  help  and 
be  helped  by  them  ;  his  Maker  is  ever  present  for 
his  loving  trust,  and  immortality  opens  before  him 
an  endless  conscious  and  responsible  experience.  In 
him  is  the  crown  of  all  terrestrial  existence,  and  na- 
ture has  its  end  in  subserviency  to  man's  reason,  and 
the  end  of  man's  finite  rationality  is  eternal  com- 
munion with  the  Absolute  Reason.  The  Ultimate 
Unity  is  Unity  in  Reason. 


Note.  —  Humanity  can  be  comprehended  in  full  Idea,  only  in  the 
History  of  Man  through  his  trial,  fall,  redemption,  and  resurrection 
to  Eternal  Life ;  and  such  a  work,  with  the  Title  of  Humanity  Im- 
mortal, may  be  anticipated  as  speedily  following  the  present  pub- 
lication. 


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